BALTIMORE — A fallen World War II veteran from Maryland is finally returning home.
Up until February of this year, U.S. Army Private 1st Class Lemuel Dent Jr. was still considered missing in action.
Dent is believed to have been killed on February 8, 1945 while on board a tank that came under enemy fire as it crossed Italy's Cinquale Canal.
At the time Dent was deployed around the European Theater as part of the 92nd Infantry Division, also known as the Buffalo Soldiers.
Dent, of Charles County, was just 30-years-old at the time of his death.
About three months later the American Graves Registration Command and Army Quartermaster Corps, scoured the region to recover U.S. soldiers who remained unaccounted for.
Crews located a single grave site nearby with a set of remains.
Although it was initially thought the remains belonged to a soldier of the 92nd Infantry Division, there wasn't enough information available to positively identify them.
Without a name, the military decided to rebury the soldier in what's now known as Florence American Cemetery.
A big break came 77-years down the road - in June of 2022 - when the Department of Defense and American Battle Monuments Commission sent the unknown soldier's remains for anthropological and mitochondrial DNA analysis.
The results came back a match for Dent.
He'll be buried September 5 at Cheltenham Veterans Cemetery in Prince George's County.
