News-Info-Alerts

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Re: WW II MIA Remembered

Date: June 04, 2001

"Remains of WWII Soldier Found

HUERTGEN FOREST, Germany (AP) - American and German officials dedicated a memorial Monday near the site where the remains of an American soldier listed missing in action for more than a half a century were found last year.

Killed in World War II, Pfc. Robert Cahow's body lay undiscovered until workers building a logging road south of Aachen in western Germany found his remains after a metal detector located grenades he wore on a bandolier.

"He rested in an unknown forest grave 56 years, until by chance his remains were found and recovered by a German ordinance-sweeping team near this marker," the plaque on the granite memorial reads. "Robert, we never did or will forget you."

Relatives buried Cahow on Saturday in Clear Lake, Wis., near the dairy farm where he grew up.

Monday's ceremony in Germany - where both the Star Spangled Banner and Taps were played - was attended by Cahow's brother, Douglas, and veterans of the 78th Infantry Division, which he served with during the war.

On Dec. 13, 1944, Cahow's company was advancing on a bunker when he and others volunteered to retrieve dead and wounded. Cahow was killed by a land mine, but officials never found his body, and he was listed as missing in action.

Douglas Cahow, a retired schoolteacher, appealed in a veteran newsletter last year for information on how his brother had died.

The 78th Infantry Division's historian saw the letter a week before someone showed him a news story saying the remains of a American soldier had been found in the Huertgen Forest.

The dog tags were barely legible, but officials said they thought they belonged to someone named Cahon. The remains were shipped to Hawaii where they were identified by military experts."