WWII remains, identified Korean War troops; they will be buried with full military honors

From left to right: US Army PFC. Lawrence H. Williams, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Harold A. Schafer and Seaman 1st Class James W. Holzhauer. (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency)

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 found.

• US Navy Sailor 1st Class James W. Holzhauer, 23, of Abingdon, Virginia, killed during World War II, was reported May 18, 2018.

• US Air Force technology. Sergeant Kenneth J. McKeeman, 23, of Brooklyn, NY, killed during World War II, reported September 18, 2023.

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

• US Army Pfc. Harry Jerele, 26, of Berkeley, Illinois, who was captured during World War II and died as a prisoner of war, was reported on December 20, 2023.

• US Army Pfc. Harold D. Wilder, 19, of Pennington Gap, Virginia, killed during the Korean War, was reported on February 17, 2023.

• US Army Pfc. Lawrence H. Williams, 22, of Norton, Kansas, killed during the Korean War, was reported on November 7, 2023.

Each will be buried with full military honors.

Holzhauer

On December 7, 1941, Holzhauer was assigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma, moored on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, when the ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft. The USS Oklahoma took several torpedo hits and quickly capsized. The attack resulted in the deaths of 429 crew members, including Holzhauer.

From December 1941 to June 1944, Navy personnel recovered the crew’s remains, which were then buried at Halawa and Nu’uanu cemeteries on Oahu.

In September 1947, members of the American Graves Registration Service exhumed the remains of American victims from the two cemeteries and transferred them to the Central Identification Laboratory at Schofield Barracks. At that time, only 35 Oklahoma men were identified. 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 excavated the USS Oklahoma unknowns from the Punchbowl for analysis.

Holzhauer was subsequently identified using anthropological and mitochondrial DNA analysis. His name is included in the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others missing in World War II. A rosette is placed next to his name to indicate that it has been taken into account.

Holzhauer will be buried at the Punchbowl on May 20.

Schafer

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

After crossing the Saar River on December 6, his battalion captured the wooded high ground north of Dillingen, Germany, before being stopped by heavy German resistance. For several days his battalion occupied defensive positions on the hill and repulsed enemy counterattacks. Schafer was killed by enemy machine gun fire on December 10 while moving to another fighting position. His body was not recovered due to heavy fighting against heavily fortified German forces. When U.S. forces were ordered to withdraw from the area on December 21, many casualties could not be recovered due to the intensity of enemy fire.

Schafer was officially declared unrecoverable in November 1951.

In 2018, a DPAA historian researching missing American soldiers lost in fighting near Dillingen determined that Schafer could possibly be linked to a set of remains called X-4651 St. Avold. These remains had been recovered from the Dillingen area by researchers in 1946. In August 2021, the Department of Defense and the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) excavated the remains of X-4651 from the 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 listed on the Walls of the Missing at the 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 is placed next to his name to indicate that it has been taken into account.

Schafer will be buried in Wheat Ridge, Colorado at 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 on July 11 after his unit took part in defensive actions against enemy forces north of Chochiwon, South Korea. According to unofficial enemy broadcasts, Wilder was killed in fighting 20 miles north of Taejon, South Korea, but his remains were never recovered or identified during or immediately after the war.

In 1954, during Operation Glory, North Korea unilaterally transferred the 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 cemeteries. None of the remains could be identified as Wilder and he was declared unrecoverable on January 16, 1956. The remains were then buried as unknown in the Punchbowl.

In 2019, DPAA unearthed X-5139, and after a decade of scientific progress and more historical research, DPAA was able to positively associate X-5139 with Wilder.

Wilder’s name is listed on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others still missing from the Korean War. A rosette is placed next to his name to indicate that it has been taken into account.

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

Williams

In August 1951, Williams served with Able Company, 728th Military Police Battalion, 8th US Army during the Korean War. Williams went swimming in the nearby Han River outside Chongyang, South Korea. Fellow soldiers witnessed Williams struggling against the river’s rushing currents and eventually becoming submerged. Rescue efforts were unsuccessful and no search party was able to locate Williams. The Army declared death due to drowning on November 9, 1951, with his remains unable to be recovered.

On September 25, 1951, the remains of an unknown soldier (named 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 exhumed 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, DPAA scientists used dental and anthropological analyses, as well as comparisons of chest X-rays and other circumstantial evidence. In addition, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA analysis.

Williams’ name is listed on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others still missing from the Korean War. A rosette is placed next to his name to indicate that it has been taken into account.

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

McKeeman and Jerele

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

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