By WMBD TV
BLOOMINGTON – The remains of a Bloomington soldier are returning home after more than 80 years.
The family of PFC Robert Lee Bryant can finally lay him to rest. While Bryant’s parents and siblings are long gone, the remaining family members are happy to give Bryant a proper burial.
Bryant was born on Feb. 20, 1920. His family moved to Bloomington from Sedalia, Missouri in 1930.
According to a press release from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, in September of 1943, Bryant was assigned to Company B, 4th Ranger Battalion, “Darby’s Rangers,” in the Mediterranean Theater in World War II.
The agency also said Bryant participated in Operation AVALANCHE, the invasion of Italy near Salerno, and engaged in fighting near the Chiunzi Pass on the Sorrento Peninsula.
On Sept. 23, 1943, Bryant was reported missing in action following a four-man patrol west of Pietre, Italy. The DPAA press release said Bryant’s body was not recovered, and German forces never reported him a prisoner of war. The War Department declared him non-recoverable on July 19, 1949.
According to the DPAA, after the war, the American Graves Registration Service, Army Quartermaster Corps, was the organization tasked with recovering missing American personnel in the Mediterranean Theater. In 1947, the investigators from AGRS recovered remains from a cemetery in the village of San Nicola. After unsuccessful identification, the remains designated as X-152 were interred at U.S. Military Cemetery Nettuno, which is now Sicily-Rome American Cemetery.
In 2019 hope came for the Bryant family. A historian from the DPAA was studying unresolved American losses in Operation AVALANCHE. The historian compiled unit records, company morning reports and grave registration records that indicated Bryant was likely lost in the vicinity of the unidentified remains recovery location.
“They leave no leaf unturned to try to find out,” said Bryant’s nephew James Bryant.
The DPAA said members from the Department of Defense and the American Battle Monuments Commission disinterred the remains in March 2022 and sent them to the DPAA laboratory for identification.
After a series of analyses including dental and anthropological, James, a retired Army officer, received a call on Sept. 23, 2024, that his uncle’s remains were officially identified.
“It would have meant so much to my dad and my other uncles to have him back. Especially to my grandmother and grandfather,” James Bryant said.
James Bryant was born seven years after his uncle’s death. He said he is the oldest, nearest living relative to Bryant. It was special for James to get the call exactly 81 years to date after his uncle died that his remains were identified.
Bryant will be buried next to his brother, James’ father, Harold Dean Bryant. Harold Bryant was a paratrooper in World War II.
At the time of the interview with James, Bryant’s remains were in Omaha, Nebraska in the lab at Offutt Air Force Base. He said his great-nephew, Bloomington native Austin Dillow is stationed at Fort Riley in Kansas. The family has requested Dillow be allowed to escort Bryant’s remains back to Bloomington.
James encourages other families waiting on the return of their loved ones remains to stay hopeful.
“Never give up. Never give up hope. I mean, 81 years, 81 years and they were able to identify him,” said James.
Repatriation services for PFC Bryant are April 12 at 1 p.m. at Park Hill Cemetery.
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