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Battle Creek man killed in World War II accounted for

Lowell D. Smith (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency)

It was announced by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency on Thursday that U.S. Army Pfc. Lowell D. Smith from Battle Creek, who was killed during World War II, was accounted for.

Smith was part of Company F, 2nd Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division. On Jan. 21, 1945, Smith went missing during the Battle of Reipertswiller in France, and a couple of months later, army personnel found German records that recorded Smith’s death the day he went missing.

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37 unidentified American remains were found around Reipertswiller in 1946, but the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) was unable to identify Smith. The organization declared that Smith was non-recoverable on July 19, 1951.

Historians conducted ongoing research on the missing soldiers from Reipertswiller and found Smith’s remains as Unknown X-8062 buried at an American Battle Monuments Commission site in St. Avold, France. According to DPPA, scientists used dental and anthropological analysis to determine the body is Smith.

The agency stated that Smith’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Epinal American Cemetery in Dinozé, France.

Smith will be making his way back home and buried in Augusta, Michigan. A date is yet to be determined.


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