Leonard Elkins Adams

Pfc Leonard E. Adams enlisted in Indianapolis, Indiana on 22 November 1943. | | He is remembered at the Bono Cemetery in Vermillion County, Indiana. | | The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced on 30 May 2023 that Pfc. Leonard E. Adams was accounted for on 20 July 2022. | In January 1945, Adams was assigned to Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division. Elements of the unit were supporting five companies attempting to secure terrain near Reipertswiller, France, when they were surrounded by German forces while being pounded by artillery and mortar fire. The surrounded companies were given the order to attempt a break-out on 20 January, but only two men made it through German lines. The rest were either captured or killed. Adams was among those killed, but his body could not be recovered because of the fighting. | Beginning in 1946, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC), the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel in the European Theater, searched the area around Reipertswiller, finding 37 unidentified sets of American remains, but it was unable to identify any of them as Adams. He was declared non-recoverable on 4 May 1951. | DPAA historians have been conducting on-going research into Soldiers missing from combat around Reipertswiller, and found that Unknown X-6372 Neuville, buried at Ardennes American Cemetery, could be associated with Adams. X-6372 was disinterred in July 2021 and transferred to the DPAA Laboratory for analysis. | To identify Adams’ 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) analysis. | Adams’ name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Epinal American Cemetery. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for. | Adams will be buried in Radcliff, Kentucky on a date yet to be determined (information added June 2023)