The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today Army Pfc. Jacob
W. Givens, 30, of Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, was accounted for on June 17,
2019.

(This identification was initially published June 20, 2019.)

In October 1944, Givens was a member of Company K, 3rd Battalion, 60th
Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division which was engaged against enemy
forces in the Raffelsbrand sector of the Hürtgen Forest, near Germeter,
Germany. He was reported missing in action as of Oct. 20, 1944, when his
company reorganized after a severe counterattack and he could not be
accounted for.

After the war, the American Graves Registration Command extensively searched
the Hürtgen Forest for him. No remains found in the area were identified as
Givens, and the Army declared him non-recoverable.

While studying unresolved American losses in and unidentified remains
recovered from the Hürtgen Forest, DPAA personnel analyzed historical
documentation regarding X-5483 Neuville, a set of unidentified remains
recovered on May 15, 1947 from District #20C of the Hürtgen Forest by the
AGRC. The remains had originally been found by a German woodcutter who later
led an AGRC team to the site. The AGRC team found the remains lying on the
ground, surrounded by U.S. Army infantry equipment. The remains, designated
X-5483, could not be identified, and were interred at the United States
Military Cemetery Neuville (present day Ardennes American Cemetery).

Based upon the original recovery location of X-5483, a DPAA historian
determined that there was a likely association between the remains and
Givens. In June 2018, the Department of Defense and American Battle
Monuments Commission disinterred X-5483 and accessioned the remains to the
DPAA laboratory for identification.

To identify Givens’ remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and
anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial and material evidence.
Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used
mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y-chromosome DNA (Y-STR) analysis.

DPAA is grateful to the American Battle Monuments Commission and to the U.S.
Army Regional Mortuary- Europe/Africa for their partnership in this mission.

Jacob W Givens