KENOSHA — The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) said it has found and identified the body of a Kenosha man killed during World War II.
According to a news release from DPAA, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Casimir P. Lobacz was 25 years old when he was killed during 'the Lorraine Campaign.'
During the early fall of 1944, Lobacz was assigned to Company E, 11th Infantry Regiment, 5th Infantry Division which was advancing through France. Lobacz's unit was part of the ground attack on Fort Driant when he was reportedly shot and killed during the first wave of assault.
However, due to the war conditions at the time, his body was unable to be recovered. When the fort was attacked for a second time a few days later, his body could not be found.
Three years later, in April of 1947, the American Grave Registration Command (AGRC), which searches for and recovers fallen soldiers, searched the Fort Driant area for Lobacz and others who were still unaccounted for.
The organization recovered a number of bodies, but none of them could be identified as Lobacz. The organization returned in 1950 to search for more bodies, but found none and concluded they had exhausted all of their efforts.
In 1951, Lobacz was declared non-recoverable.
Since then, DPAA historians have been conducting research into soldiers still missing from the Lorraine Campaign. They found that an unknown X-60 Limey, buried at Lorraine American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in St. Avold, France, could be associated with Lobacz and two other soldiers.
In June of 2021, the body was disinterred and transferred to a DPAA lab in Nebraska for analysis.
Scientists used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as mitochondrial DNA to determine the body was in fact Lobacz.
According to a news release from DPAA, Lobacz's name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Lorraine American Cemetery. A rosette will now be placed beside his name to signify he has been found.
DPAA said Lobacz will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. The date for his burial has not been set.
