WASHINGTON –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that a U.S. serviceman, accounted-for from World War II, are being returned to his family for burial with full military honors.
Army Staff Sgt. Karl R. Loesche, 22, of Monroeville, New Jersey, accounted for on Sept. 13, 2018, will be buried November 17 in Elmer, New Jersey. On Dec. 8, 1941, Loesche was a member of the 3rd Pursuit Squadron, 24th Pursuit Group, when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands. Intense fighting continued until the surrender of Bataan on April 9, 1942, and of Corregidor on May 6, 1942.
Thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members were taken prisoner; including many who were forced to endure the Bataan Death March, en route to Japanese prisoner of war (POW) camps, including the POW camp at Cabanatuan on the island of Luzon. Loesche was among those reported captured after the surrender of Corregidor and who were eventually moved to the Cabanatuan POW camp. More than 2,500 POWs perished in this camp during the remaining years of the war.
According to prisoner records, Loesche died on Nov. 16, 1942, and was buried along with fellow prisoners in the Cabanatuan POW camp cemetery.
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 cemetery near Manila. In December 1946, AGRS again exhumed the remains at the Manila cemetery in an attempt to identify them. Due to the circumstances of the POW deaths and burials, the extensive commingling, and the limited identification technologies of the time, all of the remains could not be individually identified. One set of remains, designated X-882, was reburied as an Unknown in the present-day Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.
On Nov. 2, 2016, after thorough historical and scientific analysis, X-882 was disinterred from the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial. The remains were subsequently sent to DPAA for identification.
To identify Loesche’s remains, scientists from DPAA and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis, anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial and material evidence.
DPAA is grateful to the American Battle Monuments Commission for their partnership in this mission.
Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, more than 400,000 died during the war. Currently there are 72,784 service members (approximately 26,000 are assessed as possibly-recoverable) still unaccounted for from World War II. Loesche’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery, an ABMC site along with the other MIAs from WWII. Although interred as an "unknown" in Manilla American Cemetery, Loesche’s grave was meticulously cared for over the past 70 years by the American Battle Monuments Commission. 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 call (703) 699-1420/1169.
Loesche’s personal profile can be viewed at https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000ccDLEAY