Sersha, John P.
Army Private

John P. Sersha, age 21, from Saint Louis County Iron Range, Minnesota .

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Wednesday, September 27, 1944
Death details: On March 10, 2016, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) accounted for Private John P. Sersha, missing from World War II. Private Sersha entered the U.S. Army from Minnesota and was a member of Company F, 325th Glider Infantry Regiment, as part of Operation Market Garden. On September 27, 1944, members of Company F were entrenched on a hill overlooking the German-controlled Kiekberg Woods near Groesbeek, Netherlands, and Private Sersha was one of three “Bazooka Men” sent out with a platoon to assault the German positions. The three men failed to return from the battle and several Company F soldiers stated Private Sersha was killed during the action, but his remains were not recovered at the time. In 1948, American Graves Registration Command personnel recovered two sets of remains from an isolated grave in the Kiekberg Woods. One of the sets of remains identified and the other was designated as “unknowns” and subsequently buried at the U.S. Military Cemetery at Neuville-en-Condroz, Belgium. Private Sersha’s family proposed disinterment of these remains, based largely on two independent dental analyses. In 2015, the grave was exhumed and the remains transferred to DPAA. Using modern forensic techniques, analysts identified these remains as those of Private Sersha.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Star Tribune (2016)