MADISON, Wis. — The remains Vernon County native Sgt. Jack Hohlfeld were recently positively identified among the 997 unidentified soldiers remains found intermingled in the graves after the war. In May of this year the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced that U.S. Army Air Forces Sgt. Jack H. Hohlfeld, 29, of Trempealeau, Wisconsin, who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for.
The recipient of the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, WWII POW Medal, Good Conduct Medal, American Defense Service Medal with Foreign Service clasp, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with one Bronze Service Star, WWII Victory Medal, Presidential Unit Citation with two Bronze Oak Leaf Clusters, Honorable Service Lapel Button-World War II, Philippine Presidential Unit Citation, and Philippine Defense Ribbon with Bronze Star, Sergeant Hohlfeld’s family have worked tirelessly to advocate for his identification, and his remains were positively identified by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency in May 2024.
A service for Sgt. Hohlfeld will take place Monday, Aug. 26 at 10:30 a.m. at St. Patrick Church in Onalaska. A burial with full military honors will follow at the Catholic Cemetery in La Crosse.
Gov. Tony Evers signed Executive Order #236 ordering the flags of the United States and the state of Wisconsin to be flown at half-staff on Mon., Aug. 26, 2024, in honor of his service.
“Sergeant Jack Hohlfeld was a decorated military hero who selflessly answered the call to serve and gave his life defending the values and freedoms we as a nation hold most dear,” said Gov. Evers. “It is our responsibility to make sure no hero is ever left behind, no matter how many years have passed, and it is an honor to be able to help welcome Sergeant Hohlfeld back to his home so that he may be laid to rest.”
According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Hohfeld was born in Vernon County and raised in La Crosse and Trempealeau Counties and voluntarily enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1938. He was assigned to the Philippines as a member of the Headquarters Squadron, 24th Pursuit Group. On Dec. 8, 1941, Sergeant Hohlfeld and members of the 24th Pursuit Group were engaged in combat and were soon overtaken by Japanese forces and forced to surrender as prisoners of war. Intense fighting continued until the surrender of the Bataan peninsula on April 9, 1942, and of Corregidor Island on May 6, 1942.
Thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members were captured and interned at POW camps. Hohlfeld was among those reported captured when U.S. forces in Bataan surrendered to the Japanese. They were subjected to the 65-mile Bataan Death Hohlfeld and then held at the Cabanatuan POW Camp #1. More than 2,500 POWs perished in this camp during the war.
According to prison camp and other historical records, Hohlfeld died Dec. 26, 1942, and was buried along with other deceased prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 811.
Following the war, American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) personnel exhumed those buried at the Cabanatuan cemetery and relocated the remains to a temporary U.S. military mausoleum near Manila. In 1947, the AGRS examined the remains in an attempt to identify them. Three of the sets of remains from Common Grave 811 were identified, while the remaining three were declared unidentifiable. The unidentified remains were buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial (MACM) as Unknowns.
In 2018, as part of the Cabanatuan Project, DPAA exhumed the remains associated with Common Grave 811 and sent them to the DPAA laboratory for analysis.
To identify Hohlfeld’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.
Although interred as an Unknown in MACM, Hohlfeld’s grave was meticulously cared for over the past 70 years by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC). Today, Hohlfeld is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-pow-mia-accounting-agency.
Hohlfeld’s personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000BRzBEAW.
Gov. Evers Executive Order #236 will be in effect from sunrise to sunset on Mon., Aug. 26, 2024, and is available here.
Add comment