Mullaney, Jerome Martin
Navy Reserves Seaman 2nd class
Jerome Martin Mullaney, age 18, from Essex County Newark, New Jersey .
Parents: Felix Mullaney
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Thursday, June 8, 1944
Death details: On March 10, 2025, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Seaman Second Class Jerome Martin Mullaney, missing from World War II. Mullaney entered the U.S. Navy from Pennsylvania and served aboard the destroyer USS Glennon (DD-620). In early June 1944, at the time of the D-Day landings in Normandy, France, the USS Glennon was operating in the Baie de la Seine off the French coast. On the morning of June 8, Mullaney was killed when the Glennon’s stern struck a German mine in shallow water, badly damaging the ship and causing its starboard propeller to lodge in the sea floor. While attempts were being made to tow the vessel to safety, the USS Glennon sank after being struck by a German artillery barrage on June 10. At that time 25 sailors, including Mullaney, were recorded as missing. After the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC), U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps, which was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel in the European Theater, conducted dozens of searches along the French coast until 1951 and identified five sailors from the USS Glennon. However, the teams found no information regarding Mullaney. He was declared non recoverable in May 1949. In 1957, pieces of the USS Glennon were hauled to shore by salvagers at St. Marie du Mont, France, where they were broken down for scrap. While searching through the larger sections of wreckage, a local resident found human remains within the forward portion of the ship. The remains were turned over to American officials from the Army mausoleum in Frankfurt, Germany, where they were examined but could not be positively identified at the time. On March 4, 1959, they were interred in Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium. In 2021, historians at DPAA began an effort to associate unresolved sailors from the USS Glennon with these unidentified remains. Their research confirmed that Mullaney and the other 19 unaccounted-for sailors from the vessel were strong historical candidates for association. In August 2022, the Department of Defense and American Battle Monuments Commission exhumed the remains to the DPAA Laboratory for analysis. The laboratory analysis and totality of circumstantial evidence identified the remains as those of Mullaney.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency