Remains of soldier held captive in Korean War identified

The remains of an American soldier who died as a prisoner of war during the Korean War have been identified, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

Army Pfc. Harry J. Hartmann was a member of E Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division in the fall of 1950. He was reported missing in action on Nov. 2 during fighting near Unsan, North Korea. According to repatriated POWs, Hartmann was captured and held as a prisoner of war at Camp #5, Pyoktang, North Korea. He died on or around March 31, 1951.

Nearly 500 sets of remains from burial sites at Camp #5 were returned to the U.S. as part of Operation Glory after the war ended. All but 38 were identified. The unidentified remains were buried in 1956 as unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also called the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

As DPAA scientists continue work to identify the remains of American service members killed in the Korea War, a number of the remains from Camp #5 were exhumed and moved to the laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. Scientists used dental, anthropological, and DNA analysis to identify Hartmann’s remains.

A rosette will be placed by McKeon’s name on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, and he will be buried in his home state of New Jersey.