Remains of WWII Wisconsin airman ID'd; to be buried in Brookfield
David Hansen
MILWAUKEE - Military scientists have identified the remains of a Wisconsin airman who died during World War II.
The remains of U.S. Army Air Force Pvt. 1st Class David Hansen, 25, of Milwaukee, were accounted for on Aug. 23. He was identified using dental and anthropological analysis, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said.
Hansen was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced. In late 1941, Hansen was a member of Headquarters Squadron, 27th Bombardment Group, when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands in December.
Thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members were captured and interned at POW camps. Hansen 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 #1, the DPAA said in a news release.
More than 2,500 POWs perished in this camp during the war.
According to prison camp and other historical records, Hansen died June 28, 1942, and was buried along with other deceased prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 407.
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DPAA said 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. Sixteen of the 25 sets of remains from Common Grave 407 were identified, while the remaining nine were declared unidentifiable. The unidentified remains were buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial (MACM) as Unknowns.
In Nov. 2019, as part of the Cabanatuan Project, DPAA exhumed the remains associated with Common Grave 407 and sent them to the DPAA laboratory for analysis. To identify Hansen’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) and mitochondrial genome sequence (mtG) analysis.
Hansen will be buried in Brookfield, Wisconsin, on a date to be determined.