McCarville, Robert W.
Army Sergeant

Robert W. McCarville, age 24, from Rock County Beloit, Wisconsin .

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Friday, December 18, 1942
Death details: On July 10, 2019, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Sergeant Robert W. McCarville, missing from World War II. Sergeant McCarville entered the U.S. Army from Wisconsin and served in Company L, 128th Infantry Regiment, 32nd Infantry Division. On December 5, 1942, he was killed in action in Buna Province, Papua New Guinea, during an assault on enemy positions at the Duropa (a coconut plantation) near Cape Endaiadere. His body was recovered following his loss on December 18, and he was buried in a temporary grave. In January 1943, he was reburied at the Duropa plantation in cemetery #1; however, his initial identification was lost and his remains were then transferred to the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines where he was interred as an unknown. In 2016, SGT McCarville and other remains associated with the Buna area of New Guinea were exhumed and brought to the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware. Analysts used DNA testing to successfully identify Sergeant McCarville from these remains.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Associted Press (1942)