Remains of World War II Soldier to be buried in Maryville, Tennessee

Courtesy Photo | The remains of Army Cpl. Joe A. Vinyard, a Soldier killed during World War II, will be interred June 17 in Maryville, Tennessee. Vinyard was a M4 Sherman tank crewmember assigned to Company A, 774th Tank Battalion. He went missing in action in December 1944 after his tank was hit by an 88-mm round during battle with German forces near Gey, Germany, in the Hürtgen Forest. He was 23 years old.  

FORT KNOX, KENTUCKY, UNITED STATES

06.14.2023

Story by Fonda Bock 

U.S. Army Human Resources Command

FORT KNOX, Ky. – The remains of Army Cpl. Joe A. Vinyard, a Soldier killed during World War II, will be interred June 17, at Grandview Cemetery, Maryville, Tennessee. Smith Funeral & Cremation Services, Maryville, will perform graveside services preceding the interment.

A native of Loudon County, Tennessee, Vinyard was a M4 Sherman tank crewmember assigned to Company A, 774th Tank Battalion. His unit was engaged in battle with German forces near Gey, Germany, in the Hürtgen Forest, in December 1944, when his tank was hit by an 88-mm round. The crew bailed out of the tank, but Vinyard was missing when the men regrouped a few minutes later. A crewmen reported seeing Vinyard exit the tank, but even after several days he could not be found. Inspections of the destroyed tank found no remains inside and the Germans never reported Vinyard a prisoner of war. The War Department issued a presumptive finding of death for him in April 1946. He was 23 years old.

Investigations conducted in the Hürtgen area, between 1946 and 1950, by the American Graves Registration Command, found remains in two destroyed tanks in or near Gey during the fall of 1947. The remains were unable to be identified and Vinyard was declared non-recoverable in December 1950.

While studying unresolved American losses in the Hürtgen area, a historian with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency determined that one set of unidentified remains, designated X-6669 Neuville, recovered from one of the burned-out tanks in Gey, possibly belonged to Vinyard. The remains, which had been buried in Ardennes American Cemetery in Neuville-en-Condroz, Belgium, were disinterred in July 2021 and sent to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for analysis.

Vinyard was accounted for by the DPAA Sept. 9, 2022, after his remains were identified using circumstantial evidence as well as anthropological, mitochondrial DNA, Y chromosome DNA and autosomal DNA analysis.

His name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Netherlands American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Margraten, Netherlands, along with others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

For additional information about Cpl. Vinyard, go to: https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/News-Releases/PressReleaseArticleView/Article/3164114/tanker-accounted-for-from-world-war-ii-vinyard-j/

To learn more about the Department of Defense’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, www.facebook.com/dodpaa, or call [phone]/1169.

Media interested in covering and/or obtaining more information about the funeral and interment should contact the Army Casualty Office at [phone] and/or Smith Funeral & Cremation Services, 865-983-1000.


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• Date Taken: 06.14.2023
• Date Posted: 06.14.2023 12:04
• Story ID: 447144
• Location: FORT KNOX, KENTUCKY, US