Gone, never forgotten: Fallen WWII soldier laid to rest in Calverton

U.S. Army Sgt. Bernard J. Sweeney Jr. was killed in Germany during World War II, but for decades his remains were those of an unknown soldier, buried in a Belgium cemetery.

The military never gave up trying to identify the remains of the person known only by a number: X-2752. By 2019 they thought they were close enough to exhume the body and bring it to a lab in Omaha, Nebraska for DNA work. Government scientists eventually confirmed the unknown soldier was Sweeney.

On Tuesday, nearly 80 years after his death, Sweeney finally got the funeral he never had. Scores of people lined the streets of Wading River as his body was carried in a procession from a funeral home to Calverton National Cemetery.

It was a full military funeral with all the pomp and circumstance befitting an American soldier killed in action — in this case, December 1944.

A profound honor

“Out of all my career, this is the most profound funeral service that we have done,” said Kenneth Rothwell, owner of the Alexander-Rothwell Funeral Home, which handled the funeral. “This is not a veteran’s funeral. This is an active-duty soldier’s funeral.”

The Army reached out to the Alexander-Rothwell Funeral Home specifically, said Rothwell, who considers it the greatest honor of his career. The funeral home is the closest one to Calverton National Cemetery, which is the closest national cemetery to Connecticut, Sweeney’s home state.

The service included a horse-drawn caisson that carried his casket, an American flag draped over the top. It was followed by a riderless horse with two black boots in the stirrups facing backward — a traditional silent salute to a fallen service member.

The procession, which also included veterans, police officers and public officials, slowly made its way from the funeral home to the national cemetery three miles away. Many spectators waved American flags, saluted, or held their hand to their heart.

As the caisson approached the cemetery, the procession was met by a “Canyon of Heroes” — huge American flags strung across the tops of fire truck ladders.

Moved to tears

The scene at the funeral parlor had brought some spectators to tears as Sweeney’s casket was lifted onto the caisson.

“It’s just so emotional. You don’t even know the person. It’s heartbreaking,” said Jean D’Andraia, who traveled from Port Jefferson for the service. “We’ve been crying since we got here.”

Sweeney had no known surviving immediate family, so the mourners, who never met him, in essence served as his family and friends, said Eileen Shanahan, president of Warrior Ranch Foundation. The Calverton-based group, which uses horses to help veterans deal with emotional issues, provided the riderless mount — Cody.

“When you think of a World War II veteran today, you think of a 90-year-old man. We’re burying a 22-year-old man today,” she said. “It’s just amazing that they were able to bring him home.”

The ceremony, she said, was meant to give Sweeney "the best send-off he could possibly have.”

He grew up in Connecticut and later moved to New York City, where he enlisted in the Army in November 1942. Two years later, he was caught amid intense fighting in the Hürtgen Forest near Strass, Germany, and was reported missing on Dec. 16, 1944, according to the Army.

After the war ended, officials were unable to recover a body they could identify as his.

Years later, officials investigating the cases of missing soldiers came to believe that the remains labeled X-2752 in the Ardennes American Cemetery in Neuville-en-Condroz, Belgium, might be Sweeney.

The remains were sent to Nebraska in 2019 and were identified by government scientists as Sweeney in 2021.

“For 78½ years we’ve been waiting to bring him home,” said Rothwell, the funeral director. “It’s an honor to lay him to rest.”