New York Army National Guard Honor Guard provides burial honors for World War II Soldier from Waterbury on October 10
Army Sgt. Bernard J. Sweeney was killed in action during Huertgen Forest battles in December 1944
CALVERTON, New York (10/06/2023) — A World War II Soldier from Waterbury Connecticut who went missing during the Battle of the Huertgen Forest in Germany, will be laid to rest on Tuesday, October 10, by a New York Army National Guard Honor Guard at Calverton National Cemetery on Long Island
A New York Army National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter will also fly over the military funeral, in a salute to Army Sgt. Bernard J, Sweeney, who vanished during combat on Dec. 16, 1944, near Strass, Germany.
Sweeney's remains were identified by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency on June 14, 2021, and his family notified. Previously he had been listed as missing in action.
Sweeny, who was 22 when he was killed, enlisted in the Army in New York, and served in Company I of the 330th Infantry Regiment, a part of the 83rd Infantry Division.
The division landed in Normandy in mid-June 1944 and entered the bloody fighting in the Huertgen Forest, a key German defensive position, in early December 1944.
His remains were found in a minefield north of Kleinhau, Germany and originally interred as unknown in 1950 in the Ardennes American Cemetery and Memorial in Neuville, Beligum. In 2019 the remains were exhumed and then identified using modern DNA analysis tools.
Sweeney's name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Netherlands American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Margarten, Netherlands, along with the others still missing from World War II. A rosette has been placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
The New York Army National Guard provides funeral honors for any member of the United States military upon their death. In the case of those missing in action and repatriated back to the United States the funeral involves nine Soldiers and include a rifle firing party and pallbearers.
In federal fiscal year 2022, New York Army National Guard Honor Guard Teams performed more military funerals than those in any other state.
New York National Guard
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