99th Infantry Division MIA Project & Historical Society

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99th Infantry Division MIA Project & Historical Society

MIA community, military history & battlefield tours - 99th Infantry Division, Elsenborn Ridge and more. Our experiences are shared on a website.
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We are a privately operated, non-profit organization dedicated to researching, recovering and repatriating US servicemen still unaccounted for. We are committed to searching and recovering missing servicemen, ensuring a proper resting place befitting with the measure of their sacrifice and bringing closure to families. The 99th Division MIA Project is the creation of Dick Byers and Bill Warnock. A

fter the accidental discovery of PFC Alphonse Sito’s grave by Belgian searchers Jean-Philippe Speder and Jean-Louis Seel, Byers and Warnock concluded that a deliberate search for missing servicemen might yield results. Four decades later, the results have exceeded everyone’s expectations. Join us at : www.miaproject.net.

15/08/2026

THE REVERSE SLOPE OF THE ELSENBORN RIDGE IS ON FIRE!!

This could have been a new historical WWII article but alas this is the actual truth.
Belgium High Marshes, which encompasses the Elsenborn Ridge, is on fire. Europe is suffering from a prolonged drought, with numerous fires in France, Spain, Germany and Croatia.
Belgium had been spared until last Friday. Beyond its historical significance, the High Marshes is a wildlife preservation reserve rich in biodiversity and home to species unique to Belgium. The fire is a massive ecological disaster. The fire is raging just behind the Elsenborn Ridge, in the general Sourbrodt-Baraque Michel sector where all the fire fighting forces are concentrated.
As of today evening, 4000 acres have gone to ashes and the fight is still going on. Our heroes today are the local volunteer fireman brigades, the local police and countless farmers carrying water to help reduce the disaster.

02/07/2026

STORIES OF 99ers.

In combat, the difference between life and death hangs by a thin thread and is not only a matter of luck. Sometimes it depends on who really wants to cut that thread.

John G. Messenger and his wife Grace visited us in September 1992, we toured the battlefield, the different places where the 99th saw action and of course his old company sector. On the way, he told the following story.

Second son of a British father, Robert P. Messenger, and a Belgian mother, Ghislaine Monnoyer, John G. Messenger’s prosperous life started in Brussels, Belgium, on November 2, 1925. The family was traveling around the globe and in 1942 they left Australia for the US. They took residence in Cook County, Illinois where John applied for US citizenship to join the war effort. He was eventually drafted on February 21, 1944, at age 18, joining the 99th Division at Camp Maxey, Paris, Texas, after basic training. John was attached to Co B of the 393rd Infantry as rifleman.

On November 09, 1944, a few days after his 19th birthday, John arrived on the front line and found his new residence – a foxhole along the International Highway, right on the border between Belgium and Germany.

“… We were deployed at the edge of the forest…” remembered John, “… and we were looking into Germany. From my foxhole, when the weather was clear, I could see Germans moving around their bunkers, some 600y in front of us…”.
John continues : “… Our daily occupations were to watch our front and keep warm. It started to snow and all became quiet. One day, I had to answer the call of nature but I was reluctant to leave the rudimentary comfort of my foxhole and squeeze through the snow to the CP area were we had latrines. Finally the call needed an urgent solution and I cautiously left my foxhole. Rather than going to the CP area, I made just a few yards and dropped my pants. Not an easy task. Quickly removing equipment, trousers, longjohn and take the better possible position in the snow. I was doing the job when a rifle shot broke the silence. The bullet hit right between my legs. I fell backward in the snow. In complete panic, I grabbed my pants, dragging in the process a whole lot of snow in it and dove in my foxhole. The shot came from the German lines and to this day, I am convinced the German sniper did it on purpose. He could have easily killed me, he only shot once and probably died laughing when he saw me running back to my hole. I spent the rest of the day trying to get rid of the snow filling my pants and having them dry. I had to wait for darkness to get out again and pick up my rifle and equipment…”
John was speaking French fluently, he was temporarily attached to the Regimental S-2 section in Krinkelt as an interpreter. He went back to the front on December 14, 1944, just two days before the German attack. He was fortunate to survive the assault and withdrew to the Elsenborn Ridge with his battalion. He was evacuated with trench foot on December 19.

After the war, John remained in the US working as manager for International Harvester Ltd. He moved back to UK after retirement where he passed away on September 21, 1993.

18/06/2026

Awesome 3 day visit with Ron Daines, son-in-law of Alvin Rex Whitehead and supporter #1 of the MIA Project.
Rex Whitehead was one of these ASTP college boys abruptly dumped in the real war. He joined the 99th Division at Camp Maxey, serving as an 81mm mortar squad leader in Co H of the 394th Infantry all the way to VE Day.
Rex was then transferred to the 4th Infantry Division for redeployment in the Pacific. He was in furlough in Las Vegas when VJ Day was announced. Rex was an active member of the 99th Infantry Division Association and joined the MIA Project in the early days. He was, among many other things, a key in the recovery of the remains of Stanley Larson in 2001 ( http://www.miaproject.net/mia-search-recoveries/california-road/ ).
We escorted Ron on the battlefield visiting meaningful sites where the 99th saw action, the mighty Siegfried Line and other private places where Rex Whitehead left a mark on us all.
Another great time to remember.

23/05/2026

The debt of infinate gratitude.
Today, Belgian people gathered at the Ardennes Cemetery and Henri Chapelle cemetery to pay respect and thank those who gave their last full measure of devotion to give us a better future.
Belgium has not forgotten.

18/05/2026

99th DIVISION MIA's - THE SEARCH STILL GOES ON.
Another great experience in the search of MIA’s.
This past week end we had the visit of K9 HRD Search Team and their four legged partners. The dogs are trained to locate human remains and the team is operating in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. We teamed up for a week end to review some of our unresolved 99th Division MIA cases.
We had already worked with cadaver dogs in the past with very conclusive results and recent contacts with David Van Der Veer’s team led to this first meeting. They came up with four dogs, two confirmed “sniffers”, Sky and Lexie, and two rookies in training, Shadow and Kato. Results were very encouraging and the ball is now on our side to investigate what the dogs showed us.
Working with such a motivated team is always morale booster and giving us another challenge. It was a first successful get-together and for sure not a one shot.
Thank you all for this outstanding experience!

22/04/2026

Another 99er is gone.
Alfred F. Bucci passed away on April 16, 2026, just two months shy of his 103rd birthday.
Born in Baltimore, MD, on June 17, 1923, Alfred was drafted on March 02, 1943 and joined the 99th Division after basic training. He was attached to the Division Artillery Headquarters. He fought all the way with the 99th until VE Day. The recognition that he earned included the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, French Legion of Honor, World War II Victory Campaign Medal, Belgian Fourragere, and a Meritorious Unit Award.
After the war, he married, raised a family and a successful business. He was a member of the 99th Division Association and attended many of the annual convention. He was also a member of the VFW Post 7472.
He will be buried with Military Honors at Crest Lawn Memorial Gardens, MD on April 30, 2026.
Thank you for your service Alfred.

31/03/2026

So many years after the battle, long discarded items continue to surface, uncovering long forgotten stories of long forgotten soldiers. This pair of American canvas leggins is coming from Krinkelt, Belgium. One of the leggins bears a laundry marking ( the first letter of the name + the last four digits of the serial number). The marking eventually identified T/4 Ernest Estep, a medic in the 394th Infantry Regiment. But who was this man?
Ernest Estep was born on June 18, 1921 in Buchanan, Virginia. He was drafted on December 02, 1942 and started his service for his country. After basic training, he joined the 99th Infantry Division and was trained as a medic. After his qualification, he was attached to the 2nd Battalion of the 394th Infantry Regiment and went overseas with it.
When the 394th was deployed on the front, Ernest Estep was acting as Surgical Technician for the 2nd battalion aid station. On December 17, 1944, the second day of the Bulge, when the battalion was ordered to withdraw, the aid station personnel loaded all the medical supplies in their 6x6 truck and headed to their rear base in Mürringen. From there, the medical personnel followed the long retreat through the twin villages and took up new positions on the Elsenborn Ridge. Only God knows how his leggings were left behind.
The young Virginian was wounded in action in March 1945 during the expansion of the Remagen bridgehead. His medical admission file diagnosed blast injuries with brain, cerebrum, abdomen and pelvis contusions. He was evacuated and never came back to his outfit. He was eventually discharged from hospital on Jan 13, 1946. Ernest Estep married and raised a family. He worked most of his life as a car salesman for Terry Chevrolet Sales.
He passed away on July 13, 1992 in Tazewell Community Hospital due to respiratory failure. He was 71. He was buried in Greenhills Memory Gardens, Claypool Hill, VA, with full military honors conducted by members of the Barnes Beavers Post of the VFW of Tazewell.

20/03/2026

Battlefield reveals incredible story of 99th Division soldiers caught in Bulge hell. A great investigation work made by our friend A***n Messemaker and his team.

28/02/2026

Like many armies in many wars before, troops fighting in winter conditions had to face a silent, insidious, devastating and relentless enemy. Hiding in what the infantry treasures the most : the feet. This enemy is known as “trench foot”. For 99ers fighting on the Elsenborn Ridge, there was no exception.

The primary cause was a constant exposure to cold, mud and moisture with wet and constricted shoes. Despite the Army's recommendations, frontline soldiers seldom had the opportunity to care for their feet in combat conditions. There was a lack of adequate winter equipment and bringing whatever available supply to the front line was nearly impossible. Frontline soldiers used every possible trick to stay well. One was to place a wet pair of socks around their waist, between the shirt and the skin, using body heat as a makeshift dryer. Though, putting dry socks in wet boots was largely pointless. Swollen feet began du turn red, numb, then extremely painful, purple and eventually black. It was the first stage of gangrene that, when not treated immediately, would end for the most severe cases with amputation.
For the 99th Division as well, trench foot caused massive evacuations during the Battle of the Bulge. Texas native James R. McIlroy of Co F, 393rd Infantry recalled his trench foot experience.

“… My last day of combat … was January 30, 1945… in the worst snowstorm of the winter. We were caught [by German fire] in the open in knee deep snow … all of us, wounded or not, had to lie there until dark. When I tried to pull back I found I had no feeling in my legs. I was partially frozen and in great pain. I crawled back and was evacuated by sled, then by a weasel … I was almost frozen to death. I had gangrene and pneumonia …”

Jim was evacuated and two days later was in a field hospital at Verviers, Belgium.

“… I was in great pain and heavily sedated with morphine. I was lying between clean sheets, having been bathed, and given a haircut. I thought the Germans had killed me and I had made it to heaven. My feet were purple and gangrene had developed. One day a group of doctors entered the large room where I was and stopped by every patient. We all had trench foot. I noticed one of the doctors using a long needle to test the sensibility of the patients' feet. I quickly realized that no feeling was meaning amputation. When it was my turn, the needle penetrated the flesh and I just felt nothing. I couldn't imagine my life with amputated feet. I fainted a painful reaction.
My feet eventually healed and I saved them both…”

After the war, Army statistics revealed that 5% of all admissions to medical treatment in European Theatre of Operations were caused by cold injuries. This represents about 46.000 cases in ETO only.
On a side note, cold injuries, and more specifically trench foot, were not considered as combat injuries and thus didn’t meet the criterias for the Purple Heart …

10/02/2026

LET HIM GO !

The following story was picked up by Chaplain Arnold G. Taylor, former 99th Division MP, at a 99th Division convention.
We are in July 2010. Kenneth Myers, former member of the Medical Detachment of the 394th Infantry, is holding the hand of George Serkedakis, of Service Company, 394th Infantry. Serkedakis, « Serkie » for his buddies, is hospitalized in a VA hospital near Washington, DC. Both men recalled the time during the Battle of the Bulge when Ken likewise held out a comforting hand to Serkie who had been bit by shrapnel.
Ken was a Medic. On that fateful day, December 18, 1944, Ken was driving his two-and-a-half ton medic truck through the cold and mist when he and the soldiers with him saw a jeep that had been hit. The occupants were writhing beside it.
They hoisted the wounded onto the truck but there was one body that was not moving. The soldier was laying face down in the ditch. It was Serkie. When Ken rolled him over, he discovered that a piece of shrapnel had ripped Serkie’s skull open and his brain was lying over his right eye.
"let him go!" the other soldiers yelled. "... In a few minutes he’ll be frozen stiff and he won’t know what hit him".
"… No, he’s still breathing" Ken bellowed out. "Help me load him into the truck!" - They did.
At the aid station, the surgeon shouted, "Let him go! We have too many that we can fix and get back on the line!"
"But he’s still breathing" Ken bellowed back. He continued to argue, but to no avail. So he took Serkie across the street, to the Belgian house in which he was billeted. Ken laid him in a bed, and day by day, with his medical knowledge, oozed the brain back inside Serkie’s head, and fed him with sugar cubes. All of the time, Serkie remained unconscious.
A few days later, Ken’s outfit had to move so he carefully put Serkie in a truck and against orders carried him to a rear echelon hospital and, yes, bellowed, "Fix him!".
Ken moved on and on until war was over and he returned to his home in Takoma Park, Maryland to run a successful plumbing business.
One day, a lady nearby asked Ken if he could come to her house and fix her fireplace, Ken obliged. As he completed the task, he noticed a picture on the mantel « Is that George Serkedakis? » he asked.
« Yes, he’s my brother. He lives in California, he’ll be back soon » she replied. Ken told her the story of his rescue and asked her to let him know when Serkie returned.
Years went by. No Word. Then one day when Ken was in Washington, DC, to get therapy on his legs that were frozen twice during the Battle of the Bulge. He saw a man in a cab next to him that looked like George Serkedakis.
–« Is that you, Serkie? » he yelled over the noise of the busy street. The answer was yes. Ken shouted to pull over to talk and they talked for about four hours. It turned out that Serkie was running a restaurant in the area and living a mere five minutes from Ken in the Takoma Park area!
Further, he revealed to Ken that even though he was unconscious during those first days after the shell hit, he heard the words, « Let him go! » every time!
Over the years they have kept in touch, although Serkie’s health began to fail. In spite of weakness, at 91 years of age, Serkie was persuaded to take part in the 2008 National Memorial Day Parade in Washington DC to hear the crowds shouting « Thank You! »
He rode in a genuine WWII Army jeep with Ken and Jack Rue of Arlington, Virginia, who had been in the same unit with Serkie during the war.
Two years later, Ken was again at Serkie’s bedside while he was still breathing.
However, on July 17, 2010, Serkie breathed his last and neither Ken nor the finest doctors could do anything to save him. Ken had to let him go.
May he rest in peace, and may Ken find solace in the fact that Serkie had many years old a happy marriage and successful business thanks to the fact that Ken listened to the man breathing when nobody else would.
Kenneth Myers in turn passed away on December 21, 2011.

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