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VALDOSTA, Ga. (WALB) — Private Mack Homer of Valdosta, entered the United States Army at Fort Benning on February 10, 1943, serving in Company E 364th Engineer General Service Regiment, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in the European Theater of Operation during World War II.

On July 7, 1944, eight soldiers were killed in an explosion that was so severe it partially caved-in the thick concrete roof of the bunker, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). The explosion occurred while the soldiers were clearing munitions from a captured Germany gun replacement in Crisbecq Battery complex near Saint-Marcouf in Normandy, France.

The DPAA Investigation Team visited the site to interview the bunker’s owner and survey the site in August 2022. In 2023, a DPAA Recovery Team returned to the bunker and conducted an excavation locating additional remains, which were also brought to the laboratory for comparison with Pvt Homer and the other unaccounted-for soldiers.

According to the DPAA, during World War II many, many engineer general service regiments in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were composed of African Americans who served within a segregated Army. The 364th Engineer General Service Regiment, Pvt Homer’s unit, performed a wide array of essential tasks in the European Theater, from constructing aid stations to clearing and demolishing enemy supply depots and bunkers.

In 1946, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC), U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps, was the organization tasked with recovering missing American personnel in the European Theater. According to DPAA, at that time AGRC’s search for Pvt Homer, graves registration personnel routinely compared information for unknown remains with the physical data and circumstances of loss for service members missing in the same area. The organization was unable to associate Pvt Homer with several Unknowns recovered from Normandy.

On September 1, 1950, DPAA reports that a board of AGRC officers recommended Pvt Homer’s remains be declared “Non- Recoverable,” January 8, 1951, the Memorial Division, Office of the Quartermaster General, approved the finding of non-recoverability.

In October 2021, the private owner of a bunker in the Crisbecq Battery contacted DPAA to report that while removing soil and debris from inside the fortification, he had found Pvt Homer’s identification tag and the identification tag of Private Henry Simmons, another of the unaccounted-for soldiers from the explosion.

This was the first verifiable evidence DPAA received of the precise location of the incident.

The bunker’s owner had buried Pvt Homer and Private Henry Simmons under concrete where he found them in the bunker and installed a commemorative plague on the bunker wall dedicated to Pvt Homer and the other engineers killed in the explosion.

Pvt Homer is also memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at Normandy American Cemetery, Colleville-sur-Mer, France.

Now, his remains will be returned to the United States for a proper military burial. The ceremony will be held on Friday, July 24 at 12 p.m. at Tallahassee National Cemetery.

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