Sat. Oct 5th, 2024
A Missouri soldier reported missing and then killed in action in World War-2 will finally be laid to rest in the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in Saint Louis County.
Staff Sergeant Woodrow Gerdes, of St. Louis, was killed in the fall of 1944 in the battle of Hurtgen Forest in Western Germany but his unidentified remains were not discovered until being found in a foxhole three years later.
At the time, Gerdes was buried in the Netherlands American Cemetery until his remains were dis-interned in 2018 for DNA testing and a positive identification.
Gerdes had been among the 1,700 missing servicemen from WW-2.
He will now be laid to rest again in a service in St. Louis County on July 1st.