Oliver Jeffers
Oliver Jeffers (Oct. 7, 1913- Nov. 10, 1944) was a soldier from Helenwood who was killed in action in Germany during World War II.
See Also: Scott Countians killed in war
Biography
Born Oct. 7, 1913 in Huntsville, Oliver Jeffers was the son of Daniel Jeffers (1882-1936) and Syrinda Foster (1887-1983). His siblings included Effie Jeffers (1910-1940), Ethel Jeffers (1911-1966), Edna Massey (1915-2005), Ardilla Jeffers (1917-1976), Eva Murley (1920-1952), and Golda Bell Smallwood (1925-1962).
World War II
PFC Jeffers enlisted in the U.S. Army and was assigned to the 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. He fought in the European theater of World War II, and was at the Normandy campaign, the Siegfried Line campaign, and the Batttle of Hürtgen Forest, where he was killed on Nov. 10, 1944.
A journal entry from the regiment on Nov. 10, 1944 stated that PFC Jeffers was killed and his body was unable to be recovered. The entry read: “The entire regiment jumped off on the attack, 3rd Battalion to continue its mission. 1st Bn to renew the assault on the draw; this time hitting northeast across the draw with the help of the 2d Bn who were to out off the draw by hitting from east to west. Heavy artillery and mine fields again slowed our attack and at 1220 L Co was hit by a counterattack of Bn strength and had to withdraw (PFC Jeffers killed, body not recovered). At 1300 a similar counterattack was launched against the 2d Bn, hitting between E and F Co’s.”
Aftermath
On April 24, 2020, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced that PFC Jeffers’ remains had been accounted for the previous day. In 2018, a historian with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency studying unresolved American losses in the Hürtgen area, determined that one set of unidentified remains recovered from a minefield near Germeter in 1946 could possibly belong to Jeffers. He was accounted for by the DPAA on April 23, 2020 after his remains were identified using circumstantial and material evidence and mitochondrial and autosomal DNA analysis.
He was returned to Scott County on Oct. 7, 2020, for a funeral held at West-Murley Funeral Home and interment at Fairview Cemetery.
He was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. His name is recorded on the Walls of the missing at Netherlands American Cemetery, and he is listed on the VFW Post 5669 Memorial Wall in Oneida, the Scott County Veterans Memorial in Huntsville, and the East Tennessee Veterans Memorial in Knoxville.