Remains of WWII POW from Trempealeau identified after more than 80 years

TREMPEALEAU, Wis. (WKBT) -- A Wisconsin WWII veteran who died in a POW camp has been accounted for.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced Thursday that U.S. Army Air Force Sgt. Jack Hohlfeld of Trempealeau was accounted for in May of this year.

Hohlfeld was captured and died as a prisoner of war in 1942.

Hohlfeld was a member of the Headquarters Squadron, 24th Pursuit Group, serving on the Philippine Islands.

Hohlfeld was one of thousands of U.S. and Filipino soldiers captured by Japanese forces and interned at POW camps.

Prison camp records indicate he died on December 26, 1942 and was buried in a mass grave. He was 29.

The remains from that grave were exhumed in 1947. The American Graves Registration Service was able to ID three sets of remains, three others including Hohlfeld were declared unidentifiable and buried at the Manilla American Cemetary and Memorial.

In 2018, the DPAA exhumed the remains again and sent them to their lab for analysis.

DPAA says scientists used various methods to identify Hohlfeld including dental, anthropological and mitochondrial DNA analysis.

Sgt. Hohlfeld will be buried in La Crosse. A date for that burial has not yet been set.

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