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Pfc Oliver Jeffers enlisted at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia on 7 November 1942.

His unit was engaged in battle with German forces near Germeter, Germany, in the Hürtgen Forest, when he was reported missing in action on 10 November 1944. Pfc Jeffers could not be recovered because of the on-going fighting.

Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration Command was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel in Europe.

According to a report, dated 1 May 1946, the remains of an American serviceman were found on top of the ground, not buried, in a minefield in the woods near the road leading from Germeter to Hürtgen. These remains were evacuated to Ardennes for identification. A H.B.T. jacket, found on the remains were marked with his name. Considering these marking, the place of death, the time when he was reported missing and a signed statement of a Graves Regiistration officer, it was concluded on 31 October 1946 that these remains were those of Oliver Jeffers.

A later re-investigation however concluded that there was not enough undeniable proof that the remains, marked as X-2735, were of Oliver Jeffers. Thereforehe was declared non-recoverable and officially declared dead one day and one year after he was reported missing in action.

The remains were buried as Unknown at Ardennes on 18 April 1950.

While studying unresolved American losses in the Hürtgen area, a DPAA historian determined that one set of unidentified remains, designated X-2735 Neuville, recovered from a minefield near Germeter in 1946 possibly belonged to Jeffers. The remains, which had been buried in Ardennes American Cemetery in 1950, were disinterred in April 2018 and sent to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for identification.

To identify Jeffers’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

On 24 April 2020 the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced that Pfc. Oliver Jeffers was accounted for. He was given his final resting place in his hometown on 7 October 2020.

Jeffers’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Netherlands American Cemetery. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.