Remains of La Crosse soldier killed in action in 1945 identified

Lina Portman5 days ago

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Remains of La Crosse soldier killed in action in 1945 identified

LA CROSSE, Wis. (WBAY) – A La Crosse soldier killed in action 79 years ago has finally been identified so his remains can be brought home.

Private Robert L. Skaar was killed in action while his unit was on patrol in Wildenguth, France, on March 10, 1945. The Germans did not report him as a prisoner of war and his remains were not immediately recovered. He was 18 years old.

Coordinated efforts to recover remains after the war failed to uncover any leads on his whereabouts. Eventually, historians with the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) focused on one of the unidentified graves at the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium. Through DNA and other analysis, it was confirmed in June that these were Skaar's remains.

Skaar will be buried in La Crosse on October 1.

A rosette will be placed next to his name on the walls of the missing at the Epinal American Cemetery in France to show that he has now been found.

Skaar joined the army in August 1944 and was sent to France in January 1945, two months before his death.

According to the La Crosse Tribune newspaper, Skaar had three brothers who were wounded in the military. Two of them were wounded in Europe during World War II, one in the Air Force, the other in the medical corps. A third brother was wounded in Korea in 1951.