Memorial

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S/Sgt Dayton Polvado enlisted in Fort Sam Houston, Texas on 25 March 1942.

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

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced on 10 October 2025 that S/Sgt Polvado has been accounted for.

In late 1944, Polvado was assigned to Company K, 3rd Battalion, 359th Infantry Regiment, 90th Infantry Division. His battalion was engaged in combat near Pachten, Germany, when he was killed in action on 12 December 1944. His body could not be recovered due to intense fighting against heavily reinforced German forces. As American forces began to withdraw from the area, many casualties were nonrecoverable due to continued German resistance. He was not accounted for after the war.

Beginning in 1946, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) searched for missing American personnel in the European theater, but none of the remains found could be associated with Polvado. In 1946, an AGRC team recovered five sets of unknown, buried alongside each other in a small cemetery in Pachten, Germany. The remains were sent to the AGRC Central Identification Point at St. Avold, France, where they were found to be comingled and consisted of six individuals. Only two were identified and the remaining four were buried as Unknowns. Polvado was declared non-recoverable.

In 2021, the Department of Defense and the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), exhumed the unknown remains and sent them to the DPAA laboratory for identification.

To identify Polvado’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 analysis and nuclear single nucleotide polymorphism testing.

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

Polvado will be buried in his hometown on a date yet to be determined.