On July 22, 1994, the Germans buried the body of U.S. Army Captain Blanton Barrett, who was killed in action on Comble Hill during the Battle of Saint-Mihiel on the Western Front of World War I, in Norte-et-Moselle, France.

 　　On July 22, 1994, German troops buried the body of U.S. Army Captain Blanton Barrett on the Western Front of World War I in Norte-et-Moselle, France. A card found in Captain Blanton Barrett's pocket indicated that Captain and Mrs. Barrett had a daughter named Caroline. The card was used to identify the body of Captain Blanton Barrett.

　　Captain Blanton Barrett was a casualty of World War I, killed in action on April 3, 1918, on the hill of Combres, located in Saint-Mier in northeastern France, and was awarded the Gold Star Medal. He was buried in numerous scattered mine craters and other objects and was lost. The Germans excavated it on Comble Hill in July 1918. By that time, Captain Blanton Barrett's body was a decomposing, lifeless corpse. The hill of Comble was littered with scattered bomb and artillery craters. It was one of the fiercest battlefields of World War I, where the most intense fighting took place for four years.

　　During World War I, Saint-Mihiel in northeastern France was occupied by the Germans in 1914; it was recaptured by the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) from September 12-19, 1918, during the Battle of Saint-Mihiel; on September 12, 1918, southeast of Verdun, France, the first American-led attack was launched. (First Army of 500,000 American soldiers organized under American command and four French divisions), and attacked the positions that the Germans had occupied around the town of Saint-Mihiel for nearly four years. Launching a three-pronged frontal assault, the Americans attacked as the Germans were retreating. With little German resistance, the Americans suffered about 7,000 casualties and the Germans about 17,000 casualties, and on September 16 the American offensive ended in victory.