Stebbins Ave. & Lone Tree St.
Blunt
SD
Funeral Mission for
the Repatriation of CPL Robert Bartlett
U.S. Army, WWII/KIA
August 10th, 2024
The Patriot Guard Riders have been invited by the family of CPL Robert Bartlett to show our appreciation and respect with a flag line, in honor of Robert’s service that resulted in the loss of his life in Europe during WWII. 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. Following the service, Robert will be laid to rest at Pleasant Hill Cemetery with full military honors.
Stage: 11:30am, CDT, Saturday, August 10th, at the Blunt Methodist Church, Corner of Stebbins Ave. & Lone Tree St., Blunt, SD. After we have staged, we will have a short briefing about the flag lines at the church and at the Cemetery.
Flags will be provided at the church and the cemetery.
Ride Captain: Randy Ward, A.S.C.
605-359-8719
reward1948@yahoo.com
Press Release on July 18, 2024
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA)
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 crew members 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 crew members 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.