US officials announced Thursday that human remains found in a cemetery in Belgium, Germany, identified as a US Army sergeant from Connecticut who went missing during World War II.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency stated that testing revealed the remains belong to Sgt. Bernard Sweeney of Waterbury. They exhumed his body in 2019 from Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium. He and other unidentified soldiers were buried there after being recovered in 1946 from a minefield near Kleinhau, Germany.
They found the remains of US Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Ernest N. Vienneau on April 2021. They will bury him on October 9th in his hometown of Millinocket, Maine. Vienneau was 25 at the time of his death.
The agency said reports indicate Sweeney, 22, was missing on December 16th, 1944. His unit fought German forces in the Hurtgen Forest near the Belgian border and assigned to Company I, 330th Infantry Regiment, 83rd Infantry Division.
Tammy Hynes, Sweeney’s great-niece, his closest living relative, said her family feels delighted over the identification and thankful for the military’s support. Sweeney was her grandfather’s brother.
“I have some pride there and some really good feelings about what he did for all of our country.. The fact that they went to these great lengths to identify him and honor him.. for giving his life for our great country… I really wished my dad was still alive to know this,” said Tammy Hynes.
Hynes said they are planning funeral services. Her family is trying to find the grave of Sweeney’s mother. Sadly, she killed herself after learning her son died in the war. They plan to bury him next to her.
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