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Pvt Ballard Mc Curley enlisted on 25 February 1944 in San Francisco, California.

On 12 June 2019 the DPAA announced that Pvt Ballard was accounted for.

On 29 November 1944, his battalion went to a reserve position in the woods west of the town of Hürtgen. He and other soldiers in his unit were ordered to clear a field of tree stumps so vehicles could drop off rations and supplies. According to witnesses, while clearing out a tree stump, Mc Curley inadvertently set off an enemy anti-personnel mine and he was killed instantly. His remains were not recovered or identified immediately after his loss.

His company commander, Capt Earl R. Thompson, who is buried at Henri-Chapelle, was amongst the several men who were wounded by this incident. He died of his wounds the same day.

After the war, Mc Curley’s remains were still missing. The American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) extensively searched the Hürtgen Forest for him. Unable to make a correlation among the dozens of unknown remains found in the area, the Army declared him non-recoverable.

While studying unresolved American losses in and unidentified remains recovered from the Hürtgen Forest, DPAA personnel analyzed historical documentation regarding X-7359 Neuville, a set of unidentified remains recovered in March 1948 from District #196 of the Hürtgen Forest by the AGRC. The remains had originally been found by a German civilian walking along a forest trail who later led an AGRC team to the site. The AGRC team found the remains lying on the ground, surrounded by U.S. Army infantry equipment. The remains, designated X-7359, could not be identified, and were interred at the United States Military Cemetery Neuville (present day Ardennes American Cemetery).

Based upon the original recovery location of X-7359, a DPAA historian determined that there was a likely association between the remains and Mc Curley. In August 2018, the Department of Defense and American Battle Monuments Commission disinterred X-7359 and accessioned the remains to the DPAA laboratory for identification.

To identify McCurley’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial and material evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

Mc Curley is buried on 25 April 2020 in his hometown.

Mc Curley’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery. Although interred as an Unknown at Ardennes, Mc Curley’s grave was meticulously cared for by ABMC for 70 years. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.