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Personal info

Full name
MANGAN, Donald Edward
Date of birth
17 April 1918
Age
26
Place of birth
Hamlin County, South Dakota
Hometown
Elkton, Brookings County, South Dakota

Military service

Service number
37449949
Rank
Private First Class
Function
unknown
Unit
C Company,
1st Battalion,
112th Infantry Regiment,
28th Infantry Division
Awards
Bronze Star,
Purple Heart

Death

Status
Killed in Action
Date of death
17 September 1944
Place of death
Near Wettlingen, Germany

Grave

Cemetery
American War Cemetery Luxembourg
Tablets of the Missing

Immediate family

Members
John J. Mangan (father)
Emma (Berdahl) Mangan (mother)
James E. Mangan (brother)
Lloyd Mangan (brother)
Neil F. Mangan (brother)

More information

On 7 August 2019 The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced Pfc Donald E. Mangan was accounted for on 30 July, 2019.

In 1944, Pfc Mangan was reported missing in action on 17 September, 1944, after his unit was attacked by enemy forces near Wettlingen, Germany. His remains could not be recovered after the attack.

After the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC), U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps, was the unit tasked with investigation and recovery of missing American personnel. The AGRC collected thousands of unknown remains from across northern Europe. A mass grave of several 112th Infantry Soldiers was found near Wettlingen, and most were identified through identification tags or personal effects. However two sets, designated X-70 Hamm and X-71 Hamm, were declared unidentifiable, and subsequently buried in the Luxembourg American Cemetery as Unknowns.

In 2017, while studying American losses and unidentified remains recovered from combat around Wettlingen, Germany, a DPAA historian reviewed documents of X-70 Hamm, and determined that there were five unresolved American casualties who were last known to have been lost in combat near Wettlingen, including Pfc Mangan.

In April 2019, the Department of Defense and American Battle Monuments Commission disinterred X-70 Hamm and accessioned the remains to the DPAA laboratory.

To identify Pfc Mangan's remains, scientists from DPAA used dental, anthropological analysis and chest radiograph comparison analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence.

Pfc Mangan has been given his final resting place at the Haven of Rest Memorial Park in Gig Harbor, Washington on 22 October 2019.