Soldier Accounted For From World War II (Helms, G.)

WASHINGTON – The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Gerald R. Helms, 29, killed during World War II, was accounted for July 26, 2021.

In the fall of 1944, Helms was assigned to Company E, 325th Glider Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. He was reported missing in action near Katerbosch, Netherlands, during Operation MARKET GARDEN after he failed to return from a lone scouting mission. His body was never found by his unit, and there was no evidence he had ever been captured. A presumptive finding of death was issued Oct. 3, 1945.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil or find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or

https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-pow-mia-accounting-agency.

Helms’s personnel profile can be viewed at

https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt00000004rmSEAQ.

HELMS; GERALD R
UNITED STATES ARMY
WORLD WAR II
IL
Individual Type Accounted For
Rank S Sgt
Service Number 36306478
Location Holland
Date of Loss 10/03/1945
Unit 325 GLIDER INFANTRY 82 AIRBORNE DIVISION

https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt00000004rmSEAQ

On July 26, 2021, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Staff Sergeant Gerald Rector Helms, missing from World War II.

Staff Sergeant Helms entered the U.S. Army from Illinois and served with Company E of the 325th Glider Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. During Operation MARKET GARDEN, members of the 82nd participated in assaults against German positions surrounding Allied elements in the Netherlands. On October 2, 1944, SSG Helms and members of his company secured a highway in the area near Kattenbosch, Holland, and it was during this time that SSG Helms set out alone on a short reconnaissance patrol. He never returned from this patrol, and was declared missing in action. In October 2019, a Dutch resident digging a trench in the front yard of a home in Katerbosch came upon human remains and military artifacts. The resident notified local police, who recognized that the remains likely belonged to a World War II soldier. The police then contacted the Royal Netherlands Army’s Recovery and Identification Unit (RIU), which is tasked with tracing, exhuming, and identifying all World War II casualties in Netherlands, regardless of nationality. The RIU excavated the site on 30 October 2019 and transferred the remains and military artifacts to their laboratory for analysis. The RIU determined that the remains were those of a U.S. soldier. Following this analysis, the RIU transferred the remains to DPAA. Further analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available established the remains as those of SSG Helms.

Staff Sergeant Helms is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Netherland American Cemetery in Margraten.

Gerald R Helms