BLUNT, SD – U.S. Army Corporal, Robert A. Bartlett , 22, of South Dakota, killed during World War II, was accounted for May 20, 2024.

Funeral services will be held for Robert at 1:00pm on Saturday, August 10, 2024 at the Blunt Methodist Church in Blunt, SD. Overflow seating will be available at the school gymnasium, where the service will be live streamed. Following the service, Robert will be laid to rest at Pleasant Hill Cemetery with full military honors.

Robert was the beloved son of the late Amos and Alice (Keyes) Bartlett; Loving brother of Wayne (Bonnie) Bartlett, Betty (Francis) Sherwood, Donald (Florence) Bartlett, Roger (Mary Lou) Bartlett, and Jack (Maureen) Bartlett; currently survived by his brother Jack, sisters-in-law Florence and Mary Lou; also survived by many nieces and nephews through 3 generations.

 

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA)
Press Release on July 18, 2024:

In July 1944, Bartlett was assigned to Company A, 744th Tank Battalion, as a crew member of an M5A1 Stuart light tank. His unit was engaged in battle with German forces at Saint-Germain-d’Elle, France, on July 26 when his tank was struck by an enemy shoulder-fired rocket. Two crewmembers were able to escape the vehicle, but Bartlett and another Soldier were never seen or heard from again. Due to strong enemy artillery fire and intense combat, surviving crewmembers were unable to examine the tank afterwards. Bartlett was declared missing in action, but the Germans never reported him as a prisoner of war. In September 1950, with no evidence Bartlett survived the fighting, the Army Quartermaster Corps determined his remains were non-recoverable.

Beginning in 1946, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel in Europe. On July 30, 1944, AGRC personnel recovered two sets of remains from an M5A1 destroyed in the vicinity of Saint-Germain-d’Elle. Ultimately, they could not identify the remains, designated X-141 and X-142 St. Laurent, and they were interred in the Normandy American Cemetery, France.

While studying unresolved American losses in the Saint-Germain-d’Elle area, a DPAA historian determined that the M5A1 Stuart tank recovered from the area belonged to Company A, where Bartlett was assigned. This correlation led DPAA and American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) personnel to exhume the remains of X-141 and X-142 in April 2018, and sent them to the DPAA laboratory for analysis and identification.

To identify Bartlett’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y chromosome DNA (Y-STR) analysis.

Bartlett’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Normandy American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Colleville-sur-Mer, France, along with the others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

1. Add to favourites
2. Report abuse