U.S. Korean War Soldier PFC Harry Hartmann

[May 23, 2023]   This hits close to home.  I often talk about WWII and Korean War veterans being a significant part of my upbringing.  And now, one who died in the war has been identified.  The U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency has announced that unknown remains from the Korean War are identified as PFC Harry Hartmann, Jr.  He is from Mays Landing, New Jersey, just a short drive from my home.

From the local newspaper, The Press of Atlantic City:

Hartmann, Jr. Harry J., 19, of Mays Landing, New Jersey.  The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced that U.S. Army Pfc. Harry J. Hartmann, Jr., who died as a prisoner of war during the Korean War, was accounted for July 13, 2022.  In the fall of 1950, Hartmann was a member of E Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division.  He was reported missing in action on November 2 during fighting near Unsan, North Korea.  Repatriated POWs reported he had been captured and held as a prisoner of war at Camp #5, Pyoktang, North Korea, where he died on or around March 31, 1951.  During Operation GLORY in the fall of 1954, 495 sets of remains from burial grounds around Camp #5 were returned to United Nations Command.  All but 38 were identified.  Those remains were buried as Unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1956.  In September 2019, during Phase two of DPAA’s Korean War Disinterment Project, X-14617 Operation GLORY was disinterred from the Punchbowl as part of the planned exhumation of Operation GLORY burials originating from Camp #5, and transferred to the DPAA Laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii for analysis.  To identify Hartmann’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 (mt DNA) analysis.  Hartmann’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. A procession for PFC.  Hartmann will begin, 10:30am, June 10th, 2023, at 6101 Thirteenth St., Mays Landing, proceeding down Route 50 south, making a left onto Main St; passing the War Memorial Park, where those who would like to pay tribute may view the procession, and then continuing onto Holy Cross Cemetery.  A graveside service with full military honors will start at 11 a.m. Info and condolences: https://memorials.boakesfuneralhome.com/harry-hartmann/5183913/index.php.

 Welcome home, Harry.

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Please read my books:

1. “55 Rules for a Good Life,” on Amazon (link here).
2. “Our Longest Year in Iraq,” on Amazon (link here).