Milwaukee soldier killed in WWII accounted for, remains to be buried in hometown
Army Pfc. Eugene E. Lochowicz
MILWAUKEE -- The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced Friday, Nov. 1 that Army Pfc. Eugene E. Lochowicz, 19, of Milwaukee, killed during World War II, was accounted for on July 24, 2019.
According to a press release, in early 1945, Lochowicz was a member of Company A, 28th Infantry Regiment, 8th Infantry Division. He went missing on Feb. 23, 1945, while his unit crossed the Roer River under fire, near Lendersdorf, Germany. Members of his unit later concluded that he had been lost when one of the boats capsized.
Army Pfc. Eugene E. Lochowicz
All efforts to find him were unsuccessful.
The press release indicates in 2017, in response to inquiries from Lochowicz’s family regarding unknown remains recovered around Lendersdorf, a DPAA historian reviewed documents of X-285 Margraten, which had been pulled from the river near where Lochowicz went missing. The remains, which could not be identified when they were found in 1945, had subsequently been buried at the United States Military Cemetery at Margraten, Netherlands.
Based upon the location and circumstances of recovery, the DPAA historian concluded that Lochowicz was a likely candidate for association.
Army Pfc. Eugene E. Lochowicz
In September 2018, the Department of Defense and American Battle Monuments Commission disinterred X-285 and accessioned the remains to the DPAA laboratory for identification.
To identify Lochowicz’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial and material evidence.
Lochowicz will be buried Nov. 16, 2019, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.