By Greg Jordan, Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BRADSHAW, W.Va. – A World War II soldier who called West Virginia home and made the ultimate sacrifice for his country will be laid to rest Aug 10 in his home state after waiting unidentified for years at the U.S. Military Cemetery in France.
The remains of U.S. Army Pfc. Mose E. Vance, a soldier killed during World War II, will be interred Aug. 10 at Vance Cemetery near Paynesville, a McDowell County community. The Memorial Funeral Directory Inc., in Princeton will perform graveside services preceding the interment.
A native of Bradshaw in McDowell County, Vance was a member of Company F, 2nd Battalion, 180th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division in the European Theater. He was killed in action Jan. 11, 1945, at age 21, after German forces launched a major offensive operation, Dec. 31, 1944, in the Vosges Mountains in Alsace-Lorraine, France, known as Operation NORDWIND.
This offensive was launched after another German offense, dubbed Operation Watch on the Rhine, became the Battle of the Bulge.
Vance was accounted for by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency Jan. 5 this year after his remains were exhumed on August 2022 from the U.S. Military Cemetery at St. Avold, France, known today as Lorraine American Cemetery.
