Memorial

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Pvt Harry W. Wilder attended Loyola High school in Maryland. He also attended Loyola College in Baltimore before transferring to Regis College from where he graduated in 1943. He was the senior class president and editor for the college newspaper while majoring in biology and chemistry. He was a Biology major with a minor in Chemistry and he hoped to study medicine after graduation.

He enlisted on 27 October 1943 in Denver, Colorado ans signed up for the ASTP prgram. The program would have allowed him to study medicine after basic training and serve as a medic. Unfortunately, by the time he had completed basic training, the program was cancelled and he was assigned to the infantry.

He was sent overseas in September 1944 and arrived in France on 13 October 1944.

He was declared officialy death one day and one year after he went missing in action.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced on 28 November 2018 that the remains of Pvt Wilder were accounted for on 26 November 2018.

In April 1947, following demining operations, a set of unidentified remains was recovered from the Raffelsbrand sector of the Hürtgen Forest. The remains were sent to the central processing point at Neuville, Belgium. They were unable to be identified, were designated X-5392, and buried as an unknown Soldier at Neuville American Cemetery.

Based upon the original recovery location of X-5392, a DPAA historian determined that there was a likely association between the remains and Wilder. In April 2018, the Department of Defense and American Battle Monuments Commission disinterred X-5392 and accessioned the remains to the DPAA laboratory for identification.

To identify Wilder’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.

A rosette will be placed next to his name on the Walls of the Missing at Margraten.

He was given his final resting place at Arlington National Cemetery on 4 March 2020.