Soldier Accounted For From Korean War (Hartmann, H.)

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Pfc. Harry J. Hartmann, Jr., 19, of Mays Landing, New Jersey, 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 Nov. 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 2 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 (mtDNA) 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.

Hartmann will be buried in Mays Landing, New Jersey, on a date yet to be determined.

For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.

To see the most up-to-date statistics on DPAA recovery efforts for those unaccounted for from the Korean War, go to the Korean War fact sheet on the DPAA website at: https://www.dpaa.mil/Resources/Fact-Sheets/Article-View/Article/569610/progress-on-korean-war-personnel-accounting/.

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.

Hartmann’s personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt00000004m52EAA.