Unidentified Wiki

Morris Evan Swackhammer was a United States Army soldier who was killed in action at Fraize, France during World War II. His remains were recovered in 1945 and identified on June 28, 2021.

Military service[]

Morris Swackhammer was born on May 12, 1924 to Morris Austin Swackhammer and Beulah Youngs Swackhammer. He grew up with two older brothers and one younger sister.

Morris joined the US Army from Binghamton, New York. He achieved the rank of Private First Class and was assigned to Company C, 1st Battalion, 143rd Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division.

In August 1944, Morris' unit landed on the southern coast of France and particpated in Operation Dragoon. After securing the coastal ports, the 36th Infantry Division drove north and met with the D-Day invasion force before turning towards Germany.

On November 22, 1944, Morris' unit was engaged in a heavy firefight with enemy soldiers in a wooded area northwest of Fraize, France. Morris was sprayed by bullets from a German machine gun and killed. His squad recovered his body, but had to leave him when the enemy attack proved to strong. After Fraize was liberated, Morris' body could not be located. It was presumed that either German soldiers or Fraize residents removed and buried him.

Aftermath[]

Morris was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star. He was memorialized at the Epinal American Cemetery and Memorial in Epinal, France.

After the war ended, the American Graves Registration Command was tasked to recover and identify the remains of US servicemen in the European and Pacific Theaters. In 1945, US personal discovered a set of unidentified remains, dubbed "X-756 Epinal," from a cemetery in Fraize. Although the AGRC speculated X-756 was Morris, they could not confirm due to lack of identifying information in his records. So, X-756 was buried at the Ardennes American Cemetery in Neupré, Belgium.

Identification[]

In July 2019, X-756 was exhumed after the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency concluded he was most likely Morris based on exhaustive historical research and correlation of various US military and French civilian sources. The remains were sent to the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska for analysis.

At the lab, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis and DPAA scientists used dental and anthropological analysis. Through these methods, X-756 was identified as Morris Evan Swackhammer on June 28, 2021. His identification was announced on July 6, 2021 and again on December 3, 2021. He will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. The date has yet to be decided.

Morris Evan Swackhammer 2

Sources[]