DAYTON, Tenn. – World War II Army Pvt. Warren Glinn Harding Davault rests peacefully in his hometown after nearly 77 years lying in an unnamed grave in Belgium’s Ardennes American Cemetery and a trip halfway around the world back to Tennessee.
The Rhea County High School senior and athlete was drafted before he graduated and served in the U.S. Army two years before he was killed Nov. 20, 1944, in the Battle of Hürtgen Forest while fighting German forces. Davault, at 24, was among the more than 33,000 American casualties in the costly battle.
Davault and his brothers, Emmett and Cleo, and two brothers-in-law, Roy Marler and Arthur Morgan, all were drafted into the service in World War II, four of them serving in the European theatre and one in the Pacific.
Bill Davault, the late private’s nephew, said Saturday he was glad the family’s long-lost soldier was home at last.
“I was 2 months old when he went in the army,” Davault, 79, recalled as the pews filled for the service.