Nearly eight decades after he was last seen, the mystery of a missing American war hero has finally been solved.
For the past four years, 71-year-old Ferrell Vance has been trying to find the remains of the uncle he never met who served in France during World War II. Private First-Class Mose Vance, from McDowell County, West Virginia, joined the Army in the fall of 1943.
Ferrell believed his uncle was killed in battle in 1945 while overseas, but evidence remained elusive. When his remains were not initially recovered, he was deemed missing in action before being presumed dead at the age of 23, before Ferrell was even born.
“In my grandmother’s house, she had pictures of him on the wall … and some news clippings about him in the service and what happened to him, and so forth,” he recounted to Fox 4 KDFW.
Private First-Class Mose Vance’s remains were eventually recovered by U.S. Forces in 1948 and buried as “unknown” at the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium. Not until decades later were the remains identified, thanks to the efforts of Ferrell and his cousin Chester Ball.
Upon retirement, Ferrell took it upon himself to identify his uncle’s remains. He linked up with a non-profit organization in France that specialized in connecting families to soldiers lost in battle.
After roughly four years of searching, a bayonet belonging to Mose was located in 2022 in Wildenguth, France. The location was a well-known site where many soldiers had perished and artifacts had been recovered. An analysis ultimately confirmed the military hardware belonged to the “unknown” soldier.
“I was overwhelmed. … I could hardly talk on the phone,” Ferrell said, per Fox 4.
Private First-Class Mose Vance’s remains now reside at a military base in Nebraska but will ultimately be moved to West Virginia as a final resting place.
The decorated soldier was the recipient of multiple military honors, including a Purple Heart.