Memorial

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Pfc Sanford K. Bowen attended Ohio University and was a foreman before he enlisted in Cleveland, Ohio on 3 June 1942.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced on 13 June 2022 that Pfc. Sanford Keith Bowen was accounted for on 21 March 2022.

In January 1945, Bowen was assigned to Company I, 3rd Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division. The unit was attempting to secure terrain near Reipertswiller, France, when it was surrounded by German forces while being pounded by artillery and mortar fire. Company I and the four other companies surrounded with it were given the order to attempt a break-out on 20 January, but only two men from Company I made it through German lines. The rest were either captured or killed. Bowen was among those killed, but his body could not be recovered because of the fighting.

Beginning in 1947, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC), the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel in the European Theater, searched the area around Reipertswiller, finding 37 unidentified sets of American remains, but it was unable to identify any of them as Bowen. He was declared non-recoverable on 8 May 1951.

DPAA historians have been conducting on-going research into Soldiers missing from combat around Reipertswiller, and found that Unknown X-6083 St. Avold, buried at Lorraine American Cemetery, could be associated with Bowen or four other Soldiers. X-6083 was disinterred in June 2021 and transferred to the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for analysis.

To identify Bowen’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

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

Bowen has been given his final resting place on 22 July 2022 in Shiloh, Ohio.