Twin brothers from Kingsbury County are now back together again 74 years after being killed together in World War II
Sailors Julius Pieper and Ludwig Pieper, both 19, both of Esmond, South Dakota, were killed June 19, 1944 when their landing craft hit a mine.
Ludwig was quickly identified and buried at an American Military cemetery in Normandy, but it took until last year to fully identify Julius, whose remains had been buried in Belgium.
1st Sgt. Kristen Duus with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, says they were able to identify him through laboratory analysis, which included dental and anthropological analysis, as well as chest radio graph comparison analysis.
Duus says Ludwig’s remains were disinterred so that he and brother, Julius, could be buried together on Tuesday at the same cemetery in Normandy, side-by-side, with surviving members of the Pieper family in attendance.
Currently, there are 72,917 service members (approximately 26,000 assessed as possibly-recoverable) still unaccounted for from World War II. Duus says they will never be forgotten and her agency works tirelessly toward recovery and identification.
(KELO)