{"id":106006,"date":"2020-10-09T07:00:10","date_gmt":"2020-10-09T11:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=106006"},"modified":"2020-10-08T19:36:36","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T23:36:36","slug":"private-first-class-oliver-jeffers-returns-home-after-76-years-missing-in-the-forests-of-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=106006","title":{"rendered":"Private First Class Oliver Jeffers returns home after 76 years missing in the forests of Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
PFC Oliver Jeffers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

KoB sent in this story, lest we forget that many Americans still have yet to return from their wars.<\/p>\n

After 76 years, an Army private killed during World War II finally came home.<\/p>\n

Army Pfc. Oliver Jeffers was buried Wednesday in his hometown of Huntsville, Tennessee, WBIR reported. Jeffers, who was 31 when he was killed in the H\u00fcrtgen Forest in Germany, was buried in the cemetery behind Fairview Missionary Baptist Church on his 107th birthday, the television station reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re always wondering, you\u2019re always making some kind of scenario that he\u2019s gonna come home OK,” Jeffers\u2019 nephew, Basil Massey, told WBIR. ” But he never did.”<\/p>\n

According to a news release from the Defense POW\/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), Jeffers’ body was finally accounted for April 23, 2020.<\/p>\n

According to the U.S. Army, Jeffers, who was assigned to Company L, 3rd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, was killed in action Nov. 10, 1944. His body could not be recovered because of the ongoing fighting, according to the Accounting Agency news release.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father told me one time, \u2018Maybe he found a German girl and decided to stay over there,\u2019\u201d Massey told WBIR.<\/p>\n

A historian determined that a set of unidentified remains, recovered from a minefield near Germeter, Germany, possibly belonged to Jeffers, the DPAA said. The remains, which had been buried in the Ardennes American Cemetery in 1950, were disinterred in April 2018 and sent to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for identification.<\/p>\n

DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence, to determine the remains belonged to Jeffers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMen like Oliver Jeffers stood together and sacrificed so that we could have a free world today,\u201d Jim West, pastor of White Rock Baptist Church, told WBIR.<\/p>\n

About 100 people came to the service, the television station reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was bigger than I figured it would be,\u201d Massey said.<\/p>\n

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee lowered flags at the state Capitol to half-staff in Jeffers’ honor Wednesday. Jeffers was buried with full military honors.<\/p>\n

Flags over the Capitol and all State office buildings will fly at half-staff today in honor of the ultimate sacrifice of US Army PFC Oliver Jeffers of Huntsville, TN.<\/p>\n

\u201cHelp me to honor this man right here,\u201d West told the congregation. \u201cHelp me to honor this life as a sacrifice. Help me to stand good for Oliver Jeffers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad it\u2019s happened,\u201d Massey told WBIR. \u201cI\u2019m glad he\u2019s finally home.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Source; WSOC<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KoB sent in this story, lest we forget that many Americans still have yet to return … Private First Class Oliver Jeffers returns home after 76 years missing in the forests of Germany<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[359,217],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-army","category-we-remember"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=106006"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106008,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106006\/revisions\/106008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=106006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=106006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=106006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}