WWII Soldier to be buried in Gibson City after remains were identified

FORT KNOX, Ky. (WAND) - A World War II Soldier will be buried in Gibson City after officials identified his recovered remains.

Army Pfc. Clarence W. Brotherton was part of Company C, 1st Battalion, 60th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Divison when he was involved a fight against German forces on Oct. 14, 1944 near Germeter, Germany. Bortherton was killed in the Hurtgen Forest and could not be recovered at the time due to ongoing fighting.

He was just 20 years old.

Several years after the war, a press release said a historian determined two sets of unidentified remains recovered from the Raffelsbrand sector of the forest in 1946 could be linked to Brotherton. Officials disinterred the remains in September 2017 for identification after they had been buried in Ardennes American Cemetery in 1950.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska identified the remains as being those of Brotherton with circumstantial evidence, as well as dental, anthropological and mitochondrial DNA analysis.

The remains of Brotherton, a Gibson City native, will be interred on Sept. 7 at Drummer Township Cemetery, located at 419 S. West St. in Gibson City. Funeral services will be performed by Rosenbaum Funeral Home of Gibson City before the internment.

Brotherton, who is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Netherlands American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Margarten, Netherlands, will have a rosette placed next to his name to show he has been accounted for.