The Defense POW/MIA Accounting agency announced last week that the remains of six service members from World War II and the Korean War had been accounted for.

• U.S. Navy Seaman 1st Class James W. Holzhauer, 23, of Abingdon, Va., killed during World War II, was accounted for on May 18, 2018.

• U.S. Army Air Forces Tech. Sgt. Kenneth J. McKeeman, 23, of Brooklyn, N.Y., killed during World War II, was accounted for Sept. 18, 2023.

• U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Harold A. Schafer, 28, of Denver, killed during World War II, was accounted for Sept. 26, 2023.

• U.S. Army Pfc. Harry Jerele, 26, of Berkeley, Ill., who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for Dec. 20, 2023.

• U.S. Army Pfc. Harold D. Wilder, 19, of Pennington Gap, Va., killed during the Korean War, was accounted for Feb. 17, 2023.

• U.S. Army Pfc. Lawrence H. Williams, 22, of Norton, Kan., killed during the Korean War, was accounted for Nov. 7, 2023.

Each will be buried with full military honors.

Holzhauer

On Dec. 7, 1941, Holzhauer was assigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma, which was moored at Ford Island at Pearl Harbor, when the ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft. The USS Oklahoma sustained multiple torpedo hits, and it quickly capsized. The attack resulted in the deaths of 429 crew members, including Holzhauer.

From December 1941 to June 1944, Navy personnel recovered the remains of the crew, which were subsequently interred in the Halawa and Nu’uanu Cemeteries on Oahu.

In September 1947, members of the American Graves Registration Service disinterred the remains of U.S. casualties from the two cemeteries and transferred them to the Central Identification Laboratory at Schofield Barracks. Only 35 men from the Oklahoma were identified at that time. The unidentified remains were buried in 46 plots at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu. Between June and November 2015, DPAA personnel exhumed the USS Oklahoma unknowns from the Punchbowl for analysis.

Holzhauer was subsequently identified using anthropological and mitochondrial DNA analysis. His name is recorded in the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Holzhauer will be buried on May 20 in the Punchbowl.

Schafer

In December 1944, Schafer was assigned to Company B, 1st Battalion, 357th Infantry Regiment, 90th Infantry Division.

After crossing the Saar River on Dec. 6, his battalion captured wooded high ground north of Dillingen, Germany, before being stopped by fierce German resistance. Over several days, his battalion occupied defensive positions on the hill and repulsed enemy counterattacks. Schafer was killed in action on Dec. 10 by enemy machine-gun fire while moving to a different fighting position. His body was not recovered because of intense fighting against heavily reinforced German forces. When American forces were ordered to withdraw from the area on Dec. 21, many casualties could not be recovered due to the intensity of the enemy fire.

Schafer was officially declared non-recoverable in November 1951.

In 2018, a DPAA historian studying unaccounted-for American soldiers lost during fighting at Dillingen determined that Schafer could potentially be associated to a set of remains designated X-4651 St. Avold. These remains had been recovered from the Dillingen area by investigators in 1946. In August 2021 the Department of Defense and the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), exhumed the X-4651 remains from Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France. The remains were sent to the DPAA laboratory for identification.

Schafer was identified using anthropological and mitochondrial DNA analysis.

His name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Lorraine American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in St. Avold, France, along with the others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Schafer will be buried in Wheat Ridge, Colo., on a date to be determined.

Wilder

In the winter of 1950, Wilder was a member of L Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action on July 11 after his unit took part in defensive actions against enemy forces north of Chochiwon, South Korea. Unofficial enemy broadcasts stated Wilder was killed in action while fighting 20 miles north of Taejon, South Korea, but his remains were never recovered or identified during or directly after the war.

In 1954, during Operation Glory, North Korea unilaterally turned over remains to the United States, including one set, designated Unknown X-5139 Operation Glory. The remains were recovered from prisoner of war camps, United Nations cemeteries and isolated burial sites. None of the remains could be identified as Wilder, and he was declared non-recoverable on Jan. 16, 1956. The remains were subsequently buried as an unknown in the Punchbowl.

In 2019, DPAA disinterred X-5139, and after a decade of scientific advances and increased historical research, DPAA was able to positively associate X-5139 to Wilder.

Wilder’s name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are still missing from the Korean War. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Wilder will be buried in Pennington Gap, Va., on April 28.

Williams

In August 1951, Williams was a member of Able Company, 728th Military Police Battalion, 8th U.S. Army during the Korean War. Williams went for a swim in the nearby Han River outside of Chongyang, South Korea. Fellow soldiers witnessed Williams struggle against the fast-flowing currents of the river and eventually submerge. Rescue attempts were unsuccessful, and no search parties were able to locate Williams. The Army issued a finding of death due to drowning with his remains being non-recoverable on Nov. 9, 1951.

On Sept. 25, 1951, the remains of an unknown service member (designated X-1945) were recovered from the Han River nearly 40 miles downstream from where Williams was last seen. Ultimately, attempts by the American Graves Registration Service Group (AGRS) to scientifically identify X-1945 were unsuccessful and the remains were sent to Hawaii where they were buried at the Punchbowl in Honolulu.

In March 2019, DPAA disinterred Unknown X-1945 as part of Phase 2 of the Korean War Disinterment Project and sent the remains to the DPAA laboratory, for analysis.

To identify the remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as chest radiograph comparisons and other circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA analysis.

Williams’ name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are still missing from the Korean War. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Williams will be buried in Denver on a date to be determined.

McKeeman and Jerele

McKeeman will be buried June 7 in the state Veterans Cemetery in Middletown, Conn. Read about him here.

Jerele will be buried on Oct. 6 at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, Ill. Read about him here.

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