The remains of a World War II soldier from Bloomington will be buried in his home city next month after it took more than eight decades to find and identify him.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency [DPAA] confirmed the identification of Robert L. Bryant, 23, on Sept. 18, 2024.
Bryant was a member of Company B, 4th Ranger Battalion — famously known as "Darby’s Rangers" — and served in the Mediterranean theater. In September 1943, while on a four-man patrol west of Pietre, Italy, Bryant was reported missing.
His body was not recovered, and German forces never listed him as a prisoner of war.
On July 19, 1949, the War Department declared him non-recoverable.
For years, efforts to locate the missing soldiers of the Mediterranean theater continued. In 1947, the American Graves Registration Service [AGRS] began searching for lost soldiers. They discovered remains in a cemetery in San Nicola, Italy, but could not link the remains to a specific individual.
The remains were interred in the U.S. Military Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy, as "X-152 Naples."
Though Bryant’s family knew he was one of the countless souls lost in the war, they couldn’t know that one day, a breakthrough would bring him home.
They were given a Purple Heart in his name.
In 2019, a renewed investigation into soldiers still unaccounted for from the Italian campaign unfolded. Historians pored over company morning reports, unit records, and grave registration records, connecting Bryant’s loss to the vicinity where the remains had been found.
In March 2022, Bryant’s remains were recovered, and experts used anthropological, dental, and mitochondrial DNA analysis to confirm his identity.
Bryant's remains will be transported from Midway Airport in Chicago to Calvert & Metzler Funeral Home in Bloomington on April 3, according to Rolling Thunder, a nonprofit that advocates for soldiers missing in action.
Funeral services are set for 1 p.m., April 12 at Park Hill Cemetery in Bloomington following a procession from the funeral home.
Bryant will be buried with full military honors.