Memorial

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Pvt Otis E.H. Beliles enlisted in Evansville, Indiana on 21 December 1942. He was sent overseas on 2 June 1944 and arrived in the UK on 29 June 1944 after which he was sent to France on 22 July 1944 where he arrived a day later.

He was hospitalized as a result of a gunshot wound on 4 August 1944 due to enemy action in the vicinity of Catigny, France. After recovering he rejoined his unit.

He was officially declared death one year and one day after he was reported missing in action.

On 11 June 2026, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced that Otis E. H. Beliles was accounted for.

In October 1944, his unit was engaged in combat in the Hürtgen Forest, Germany. Serving as a scout, Beliles was lost at some point during an engagement near Stolberg and was reported missing in action. Search attempts following the battle were nearly impossible due to enemy presence in the area, and his remains were not accounted for following the war.

In June 1946, a German citizen found a set of not buried unidentified remains in a minefield near Germeter, Germany. The remains were designated X-2781 Neuville and interred at the Ardennes American Cemetery. A gunshot wound to the head was diagnosed.

In August 2022, the Department of Defense and the American Battle Monuments Commission exhumed the remains and transferred them to the DPAA Laboratory for analysis. There, scientists used modern forensic techniques to identify Beliles.

He is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten.

Funeral arrangments are pending (information added October 2026).