FORT KNOX, Ky. — The remains of Sgt. John W. Radanovich, a Soldier killed during World War II, will be interred Aug. 12 at Union Miner Cemetery, Mount Olive, Illinois. Becker & Sons Funeral Home, Mount Olive, will perform graveside services preceding the interment.
A native of Mount Olive, Radanovich was assigned to Company G, 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. His rifle platoon was engaged in battle with German forces near the town of Grosshau, in Hürtgen Forest, Germany, when he was reported missing in action Dec. 1, 1944, at age 23. The Germans never reported Radanovich a prisoner of war, and his remains were not recovered. The War Department issued a presumptive finding of death for him in December 1945.
Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration Command conducted several investigations in the Hürtgen area between 1946 and 1950, but none of the recovered remains were identified as Radanovich.
While studying unresolved American losses in the Hürtgen Forest, a historian with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency determined that one set of unidentified remains, designated X-2754A Neuville, recovered near Grosshau in 1946, possibly belonged to Radanovich. The remains, which had been buried in Ardennes American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Neuville-en-Condroz, Belgium, were disinterred in June 2021 and sent to the DPAA laboratory for analysis.
Radanovich was accounted for by the DPAA May 11, 2023, after his remains were identified using circumstantial evidence as well as anthropological, mitochondrial DNA and autosomal DNA analysis.
His name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, Netherlands, along with others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
For additional information about Sgt. Radanovich, visit his profile on the DPAA website.
To learn more about the Department of Defense’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website, Facebook or call 703-699-1420/1169.
Media interested in covering or obtaining more information about the funeral and interment should contact the Army Casualty Office at 800-892-2490 or Becker & Sons Funeral Home, 217-999-3821.
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