Three More Accounted For

Defense MIA/POW Accounting Agency

 

Airman Accounted for from WWII

U.S. Army Air Force Pfc. Henry J. McConnell

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Air Force Pfc. Henry J. McConnell, 28, of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for July 27, 2023.

In early 1942, McConnell was assigned to the 2nd Observation Squadron in the Philippines, when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands in December. 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.  McConnell was among those reported captured when U.S. forces in Bataan surrendered to the Japanese. They were subjected to the 65-mile Bataan Death March and then held at the Cabanatuan POW camp. More than 2,500 POWs perished in this camp during the war.

According to prison camp and other historical records, McConnell died July 26, 1942, and was buried along with other deceased prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 225.

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 225 were identified, but the rest were declared unidentifiable. The unidentified remains were buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial (MACM) as Unknowns.

In March 2018, the remains associated with Common Grave 225 were disinterred and sent to the DPAA laboratory for analysis.

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

Although interred as an Unknown in MACM, McConnell’s grave was meticulously cared for over the past 70 years by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC).

McConnell will be buried in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, on November 30, 2023.

 

Soldier Accounted for from Korean War

U.S. Army Cpl. William J. Herrington

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Cpl. William J. Herrington, 19, of Alliance, Ohio, killed during the Korean War, was accounted for Aug. 26, 2022.

In late 1950, Herrington was a member of Dog Company, 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action on Dec. 2, while fighting a series of major battles with the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army (CPVA) on the eastern shore of the Chosin Reservoir, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (D.P.R.K. or North Korea). When Herrington’s unit regrouped in Hangnam, he could not be located and was reported missing. There is no evidence that he was ever a prisoner of war. Herrington, absent any evidence of his continued survival, was declared nonrecoverable and the Army issued a presumptive finding of death on Dec. 31, 1953.

On July 27, 2018, following the summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un in June 2018, North Korea turned over 55 boxes, purported to contain the remains of American service members killed during the Korean War. The remains arrived at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii on Aug. 1, 2018, and were subsequently accessioned into the DPAA laboratory for identification.

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

Herrington’s name is recorded on the American Battle Monuments Commission’s Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, 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.

Herrington will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, in July, 2024.

 

Soldier Accounted for from WWII

U.S. Army Pfc. Clinton E. Smith

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Pfc. Clinton E. Smith, Jr., 19, of Wichita Falls, Texas, killed during World War II, was accounted for Sept. 28, 2022.

In January 1945, Smith was assigned to Company D, 1^st Battalion, 157^th Infantry Regiment, 45^th Infantry Division. The unit was engaged with German forces during the Battle of Reipertswiller in France and was surrounded, along with four other companies. Smith was killed in an artillery strike on Jan. 14, but his body could not be recovered because of the fighting.

Beginning in 1946, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC), the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel in the European Theater, searched the area around Reipertswiller, finding 37 unidentified sets of American remains, none of which could be identified as Smith. He was declared non-recoverable on March 29, 1951.

DPAA historians have been conducting on-going research into Soldiers missing from combat around Reipertswiller, and found that X-6985 St. Avold, which had been buried at Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Belgium, could be associated with Smith. X-6985 was disinterred in August 2021 and transferred to the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for analysis.

To identify Smith’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.

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

Smith will be buried in San Antonio, Texas, on Nov 27, 2023.

 

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 or find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-pow-mia-accounting-agency.

Category: No Longer Missing