In November 2021, the Doughboy MIA team headed overseas and began the search for three missing American boys lost on the battlefields of France
Learn their stories
Corporal Edward J. Malone
Company K. 307th Infantry, U.S. Army
Enlisted: New York, New York // Missing: Vesle, France
In early September of 1918, American forces were part of the general offensive pushing the German Army back from the River Vesle towards the River Aisne. On September 9th, 1918, as part of this effort, Company K of the 307th Infantry Regiment, 77th Division, AEF, conducted an attack on the village of Révillon. The attack failed with several casualties, one of them being Corporal Edward J. Malone of New York City.
Corporal Malone was buried later in the evening by his best friend Corporal Harold Cronin and a Sergeant Jim Carroll. Both men went above and beyond in properly burying their comrade: Malone was buried with his mess tin containing identifying information, his grave site was marked with a bayonet and identification tag, and the site coordinates carefully recorded for future recovery.
Sadly, that recovery never materialized. Alerted by letters from his grieving mother, the American Graves Registration Service conducted several searches. Efforts to recover Corporal Malone’s remains were unsuccessful, and in 1932 the investigation into his case was indefinitely suspended.
Based on Doughboy MIA research, Corporal Edward J. Malone’s mortal remains still rest in situ in the field where he fell in battle. Using today’s technology, there exists the strong potential for recovery, and the full and final accounting of Corporal Malone. It is time to make one more mighty effort to bring him home.
Corporal James L. Uber
Company B. 112th Infantry Regiment, 28th Division
Enlisted: Kane, Pennsylvania // Missing: Meuse-Argonne, France
More than a century ago, a young Pennsylvania National Guardsmen was declared missing in action in France. On the afternoon of October 8, 1918, Corporal James L. Uber, a round-faced kid from Kane, Pennsylvania, was moving through the eastern edge of the Argonne Forest as part of Company B, 112th Infantry Regiment, 28th Division National Guard. Up ahead rose the steep, wooded embankment of Hill 224. As he and his comrades pushed on towards that divisional objective, shells rained down all around them; French 75's and German 77's both carving out huge sections of the forest in bright flashes. Hell on earth would be an apt description.
As Corporal Uber and his company pushed ahead, the rapid chugging sound of German MG 08 machine guns could soon be picked out from the din around them. The buzzing sound of bullets brought cries from the Americans as they found soft targets across the Company B line. Somewhere near the top of that hill James fell, mortally wounded - killed in action just nine-months after landing in France. He was 29 years old.
The 112th would go on to win battle honors across the Argonne and play their part in bringing about the German capitulation the following month. But James would not take part in those celebrations. Instead, buried in a shallow field grave near where he fell, Corporal James L. Uber would be lost to time and memory. He would be listed MIA and, to this day, his family has never known his final resting place.
Nearly 100 years later, a young French boy finds Corporal Uber’s dog tag in a field and turns it over to US service members attending a local rememberance service. The dog tag made its way to our organization, and – using unit action reports and company maps – we have been able to trace his battlefield grave back to that very field. 100 square yards of unsearched earth now separate James and home.
Sergeant John T. Curran
316th Infantry, 79th Division
Enlisted: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania // Missing: Meuse-Argonne, France
On November 6th, 1918 – just as the end of the war was in sight – Sergeant John T. Curran, a member of the 316th Infantry, 79th Division was severely wounded in action and captured by the Germans. The following day, he died in a German field hospital located in a house in the town of Marville, and was interred in the adjacent garden, which was serving as a burial ground.
Following the war, Graves Registration Service (GRS) personnel were unable to find out what actually happened to Curran, outside of his capture and death in German hands. Later inquiries of the German government showed they knew of no recovery of Curran’s remains, and no GRS personnel ever reported discovering anything in the area of the burial or among other nearby temporary grave locations of American KIA’s that had been recovered.
Based on our investigations, we believe that the mortal remains of SGT Curran remain in situ in the garden grave behind the building used by the Germans as a field hospital in Marville and by using today’s technology there is a strong possibility of his recovery.
Sergeant Curran has been lost long enough. With our efforts, we stand a good chance of bringing him home to his family.