Press Release | Feb. 10, 2022

USS Oklahoma Sailor Accounted For From World War II (Walker, H.)

WASHINGTON  –   The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that Navy Storekeeper 1st Class Harry E. Walker, 36, of San Diego, killed during World War II, was accounted for on March 9, 2021.

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

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

In September 1947, tasked with recovering and identifying fallen U.S. personnel in the Pacific Theater, members of the American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) disinterred the remains of U.S. casualties from the two cemeteries and transferred them to the Central Identification Laboratory at Schofield Barracks. The laboratory staff was only able to confirm the identifications of 35 men from the USS Oklahoma at that time. The AGRS subsequently buried the unidentified remains in 46 plots at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP), known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu. In October 1949, a military board classified those who could not be identified as non-recoverable, including Walker.

Between June and November 2015, DPAA personnel exhumed the USS Oklahoma Unknowns from the Punchbowl for analysis.

To identify Walker’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

Walker’s name is recorded on the Walls 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.

Walker will be buried on March 15, 2022, in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

For family and funeral information, contact the Navy Service Casualty office at (800) 443-9298.

Press Release | Feb. 3, 2022

Soldier Accounted For From World War II (Ladner, A.)

WASHINGTON  –   The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Pvt. Andrew J. Ladner, 30, of Harrison City, Mississippi, killed during World War II, was accounted for July 9, 2021.

In the fall of 1942, Ladner was assigned to the 126th Infantry Regiment, 32nd Infantry Division. On Nov. 30, his unit was part of the effort to cut off the Japanese supply and communications line coming from their beachhead at Sanananda Village, Territory of Papua, on the island of New Guinea. Ultimately, the effort was successful as the unit established the blockade, called the Huggins Roadblock, and held for 22 days until relieved by Australian forces. However, Ladner was killed in the initial assault. He was reportedly buried 26 yards west of the road the unit was blockading.

Following the war, the American Graves Registration Service, the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel, conducted exhaustive searches of battle areas and crash sites in New Guinea, concluding their search in late 1948. Investigators could not find any evidence of Ladner. He was declared non-recoverable Jan. 24, 1950.

In April 1943, remains of an unidentified U.S. Soldier, found near the area of the Huggins Roadblock, was buried in a temporary U.S. cemetery in Soputa. Those remains were disinterred and moved two more times until being designated Unknown X-1545 Manila Mausoleum and buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines on Oct. 12, 1949.

Between 1995 and 2012, DPAA predecessor organizations recovered three men from the Huggins Roadblock area, but found no trace of Ladner. DPAA historians and anthropologists later conducted a multidisciplinary review of Unknown and casualty files, and recommended disinterment of the Unknowns associated with the campaign to neutralize Japanese positions at Buna and Sanananda. X-1545 was disinterred Nov. 3, 2016 and sent to the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for examination and analysis.

To identify Ladner’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as material and circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

Ladner’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in the Philippines, along with others still missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Ladner will be buried in Gulfport, Mississippi. The date has yet to be determined.

For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.

Press Release | Jan. 26, 2022

Soldier Accounted For From World War II (Morrison, B.)

WAHSINGTON  –   The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that Army Pfc. Bill Morrison, 29, of Birmingham, Alabama, killed during World War II, was accounted for July 9, 2021.

In November 1944, Morrison was assigned to Company G, 2nd Battalion, 110th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division. His unit was engaged in battle with German forces in the Raffelsbrand sector of the Hürtgen Forest in Germany, when he was reported killed in action on Nov. 8. His body was not able to be recovered.

Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel in Europe. They conducted several investigations in the Hürtgen area between 1946 and 1950, but were unable to recover or identify Morrison’s remains. He was declared non-recoverable in December 1951.

While studying unresolved American losses in the Hürtgen area, a DPAA historian determined that one set of unidentified remains, designated X-4470 Neuville, originally discovered by a German civilian and recovered by the AGRC in 1946, possibly belonged to Morrison. The remains, which had been buried in Ardennes American Cemetery in 1950, were disinterred in April 2019 and sent to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for identification.

To identify Morrison’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial and material evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y chromosome DNA (Y-STR) analysis.

Morrison’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Hombourg, Belgium, 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.

Morrison will be buried in Spanish Fort, Alabama. The date has yet to be decided.

For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.

Press Release | Jan. 13, 2022

Pilot Accounted For From Vietnam War (Charvet, P.)

WASHINGTON  –   The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Naval Reserve Cmdr. Paul C. Charvet, 26, of Grandview, Washington, killed during the Vietnam War, was accounted for March 1, 2021.

On March 21, 1967, Charvet was the pilot of an A-1H Skyraider airplane assigned to Attack Squadron 215 aboard the USS Bon Homme Richard. During a mission near Thanh Hoa Province, Vietnam, his plane disappeared in an area of low cloud cover and fog a kilometer northeast of Hon Me Island. His remains were not recovered after a search of the area. On March 22, Radio Hanoi Broadcast reported an American aircraft was shot down the day before off the coast of Thanh Hoa Province. Charvet’s plane was the only U.S. aircraft loss in that area March 21. Charvet was considered missing in action until Dec. 2, 1977 when his status was changed to “Presumed Killed in Action.”

On Sept. 24, 2020, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam turned over presumed human remains and material evidence that a Vietnamese team had unilaterally recovered to the U.S. Additional material evidence was turned over Oct. 15, 2020. The remains and evidence were turned over to DPAA’s laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii.

To identify Charvet’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as material evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and autosomal DNA (auSTR) analysis.

Charvet’s name is recorded on the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and the American Battle Monuments Commission’s Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, along with others who are unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Charvet’s funeral date and location has not yet been decided.

For family and funeral information, contact the Navy Casualty Office at (800) 443-9298.

Press Release | Jan. 7, 2022

Soldier Accounted For From Korean War (Cherry, R.B.)

WASHINGTON  –   The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that Army Cpl. R.B. Cherry, 19, of Dallas, who died as a prisoner of war during the Korean War, was accounted for May 19, 2020.

In late 1950, Cherry was a member of Company G, 2nd Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action on Nov. 27, 1950, near Anju, North Korea. Using information provided by returned POWs after the war, it was determined that Cherry had been a POW in Camp 5 and died of pneumonia sometime in the winter of 1950. His remains were reportedly buried in a cemetery near the camp and were not recovered.

During Operation GLORY in 1954, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea returned the remains of just over 4,200 individuals, of which nearly 3,000 were determined to be American. During the subsequent processing and identification of these remains, none were associated with Cherry, and he was declared non-recoverable Jan. 16, 1956. At the end of the identification process, 848 unidentified remains, including one designated X-13460 Operation GLORY, were interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

In 2018, X-13460 and thirteen other unknowns thought to be associated with remains from the 1st Marine Division (MARDIV) Cemetery that had been at Yudam-ni, near the Chosin Reservoir, were disinterred following recommendation from DPAA researchers. It was determined that some of the remains thought to be from the 1st MARDIV Cemetery, including X-13460, actually came from the cemetery near Camp 5.

To identify Cherry’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

Cherry’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.

Cherry will be buried in his hometown. The date has yet to be determined.

For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.