WASHINGTON, D.C. (KELO) — U.S. Army Corporal Robert A. Bartlett, of Pierre, S.D., was accounted for May 20, 2024, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA).
Bartlett was killed during World War II at the age of 22 while assigned to Company A, 744th Tank Battalion.
On July 26, 1944, Bartlett was a crew member of an M5A1 Stuart light tank engaged in battle with German forces at Saint-Germain-d’Elle, France. The tank was struck by an enemy rocket. Two crew members escaped, but Bartlett and another soldier were never seen again, nor were they heard from.
With the area under continued strong artillery fire, crew members were unable to examine the tank.
In 1946, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) began investigating and recovering MIAs in Europe. In July, they recovered two sets of remains from a destroyed M5A1 tanker in the same vicinity where Bartlett was last seen. The unidentified remains, referred to as X-141 and X-142 were placed in the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France.
Research was being conducted on unresolved American losses in the area where Bartlett and the other soldier were killed. A DPAA historian determined the recovered Stuart tank belonged to Company A, where Bartlett was assigned.
More than seven decades after the two soldiers died, the DPAA and American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) exhumed their remains from the Normandy American Cemetery in April 2018 and they were sent to a lab for identification.
Scientists used dental, anthropological, circumstantial and DNA evidence to identify the remains. Bartlett was positively identified along with fellow crew member Staff Sergeant Leroy C. Cloud of Texas.
Bartlett’s name is listed at the at the Normandy American Cemetery where he was initially buried, in northwestern France. To indicate his remains have been accounted for, a rosette will be placed beside his name.
Bartlett, born November 14, 1921, will be buried on August 10, 2024 in Blunt, South Dakota.
