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Cpl Joseph H. Gunnoe enlisted at Fort Thomas, Kentucky on 23 March 1943.

His unit was driven from Vossenack, Germany, in the Hürtgen Forest, by a German attack on 6 November 1944 and this is likely when Gunnoe was killed, but he was not reported missing until 9 November. His body was unable to be recovered, and the Germans never reported him as a prisoner of war. He was declared killed in action after the war.

Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration Command was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel in Europe. They conducted several investigations in the Hürtgen area between 1946 and 1950, but were unable to recover or identify Gunnoe’s remains. He was declared non-recoverable in October 1951.

While studying unresolved American losses in the Hürtgen area, a DPAA historian determined that one set of unidentified remains, designated X-2775 Neuville, recovered near Vossenack in June 1946, possibly belonged to Gunnoe. The remains, which had been buried in Ardennes American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Neuville-en-Condroz, Belgium, in 1949, were disinterred in July 2021 and sent to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for identification.

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

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced on 21 September 2022 that Cpl. Joseph H. Gunnoe was accounted for on 14 September 2022.

Cpl Gunnoe was buried in Charleston, West Virginia on 14 December 2022.