SAN ANTONIO – A World War II soldier from San Antonio who was killed in action in 1945 will be buried Friday at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.
Army Pvt. Penn Franks Jr. was killed Feb. 10, 1945, during a battle in the northern Apennine Mountains near Strettoia, Italy.
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His remains were recovered in August 1945 but were declared non-identifiable due to the lack of sufficient identifying data, according to the Department of Defense.
His remains were buried in the United States Military Cemetery in Florence in 1949 and his gravesite was maintained for 70 years by the American Battle Monuments Commission
In 2016, the Department of Defense and ABMC disinterred his remains and sent them to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, for identification.
Franks will be buried Friday at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.
According to the Department of Defense, there are 72,682 service members still unaccounted for from World War II. It's estimated that about 30,000 of them are believed to be possibly recoverable.