The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced Tuesday that they have identified the remains of U.S. Army Private First Class Robert L. Bryant, who went missing in action during World War II's Operation AVALANCHE in Italy.
Bryant, who was 23 when he disappeared, served with Company B of the 4th Ranger Battalion, part of the elite "Darby's Rangers" unit. He was among 170,000 Allied servicemen who participated in the amphibious invasion of Italy in September 1943.
On September 23, 1943, Bryant vanished after encountering a German patrol near Pietre, Italy, following combat operations near the Chiunzi Pass. His body was never recovered, and German forces never listed him as a prisoner of war. In 1949, the War Department declared him non-recoverable.
The breakthrough came in 1947 when investigators discovered unidentified remains, designated as X-152 Naples, in a cemetery in the Italian village of San Nicola. These remains were interred at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery.
In 2019, a DPAA historian connected Bryant's loss to the location where X-152 was found. The remains were exhumed in 2022 for analysis at the DPAA laboratory. Scientists used anthropological and dental examination, along with DNA analysis and circumstantial evidence, to confirm Bryant's identity.
Bryant, who was awarded a posthumous Purple Heart, left behind his parents, five brothers, and his wife. His name appears on the Walls of the Missing at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy, where a rosette will now mark his identification.
The fallen soldier's remains will be laid to rest in April 2025, bringing closure to his family after eight decades. The identification effort received support from various organizations, including Descendants of World War II Rangers Inc., Associazione Salerno 1943, and the National Archives at College Park.