Private First Class Oliver Jeffers returns home after 76 years missing in the forests of Germany

| October 9, 2020

PFC Oliver Jeffers

KoB sent in this story, lest we forget that many Americans still have yet to return from their wars.

After 76 years, an Army private killed during World War II finally came home.

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 Hürtgen Forest in Germany, was buried in the cemetery behind Fairview Missionary Baptist Church on his 107th birthday, the television station reported.

“You’re always wondering, you’re always making some kind of scenario that he’s gonna come home OK,” Jeffers’ nephew, Basil Massey, told WBIR. ” But he never did.”

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

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.

“My father told me one time, ‘Maybe he found a German girl and decided to stay over there,’” Massey told WBIR.

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.

DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence, to determine the remains belonged to Jeffers.

“Men like Oliver Jeffers stood together and sacrificed so that we could have a free world today,” Jim West, pastor of White Rock Baptist Church, told WBIR.

About 100 people came to the service, the television station reported.

“It was bigger than I figured it would be,” Massey said.

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

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.

“Help me to honor this man right here,” West told the congregation. “Help me to honor this life as a sacrifice. Help me to stand good for Oliver Jeffers.”

“I’m glad it’s happened,” Massey told WBIR. “I’m glad he’s finally home.”

Source; WSOC

Category: Army, We Remember

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Sapper3307

Welcome home.

Ex-PH2

Welcome home, PFC Jeffers.

May the road rise to meet him, the wind be always at his back, the game plentiful, and the fire warm and welcoming.

5th/77th FA

Welcome Home PFC Oliver Jeffers. We Salute your Service and Pay Honors to your Sacrifice.

I was pleased to just happen upon this article. It is always good to have a follow up from the news of the return/identification of these Warriors. Some real nice stories and videos of the Services in the linky.

Thanks for posting Mason! #neverforget

A Proud Infidel®™

Welcome Home Fallen Warrior, you’ve earned your place in history and Valhalla.

IDC SARC

RIP

UpNorth

Welcome home, Rest In Peace.

Roh-Dog

A Great Nation remembers Her Warriors, Welcome Home.
Lest We Forget.

Sparks

Rest in peace Brother.

Green Thumb

Welcome home, PFC Jeffers.

It was a long trip.

Rest well.

Chuck S.

Hürtgen Forest. A battle that should be remembered. Far too many died. Strategic errors? Tactical mistakes? Replay of a Bridge Too Far?

God bless the men who fought, and the many who died, in that cold and wet battlefield.

Name edited to protect PII.
AW1