Remains of local WWII veteran, POW identified -- burial set for August in Boonville
May 22—WASHINGTON — The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency recently announced that U.S. Army Pvt. Harland J. Hennessey, 24, of Boonville, who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for Sept. 23, 2024.
Hennessey's nephew John Hennessey provided a DNA swab to confirm the identification of the remains.
Although Private Hennessey died before his birth, Mr. Hennessey grew up hearing of his uncle and saw pictures of him.
"I know he liked to drive his jalopy around the race track," Mr. Hennessey said. "I was told he never had a license but he did it any ways."
Mr. Hennessey said his uncle could have been buried in Arlington Cemetery in Washington D.C.
"I think he would have wanted to come back to Boonville — he had been gone so long and will be buried next to his parents."
Under the care of the Trainor Funeral Home, Pvt. Hennessey will be buried in the Boonville Cemetery on Aug. 23 next to his parents Howard and Dorothy Hennessey. The Boonville Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5533, which was named in honor of Harland J. Hennessey in 1945, is planning to hold a celebration this summer.
Hennessey's history
Private Hennessey entered the U.S. Army from New York and served in the 803rd Engineer Battalion, Aviation. He was stationed in the Philippines at the time of the Japanese invasion of the islands in December. Intense fighting continued until the surrender of the Bataan peninsula on April 9, 1942, when Hennessey was captured, and of Corregidor Island on May 6, 1942.
After the surrender, the Japanese began the forcible transfer of thousands of American and Filipino prisoners of war to various prison camps in central Luzon, at the northern end of the Philippines.
Hennessey was among those subjected to the 65-mile Bataan Death March and then held at the Cabanatuan POW Camp -1. The largest of these camps, the notorious Cabanatuan Prison Camp held approximately 8,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war that were captured during and after the Fall of Bataan. Camp overcrowding worsened with the arrival of Allied prisoners who had surrendered on Corregidor on May 6, 1942. Conditions at the camp were poor, with food and water extremely limited, leading to widespread malnutrition and outbreaks of malaria and dysentery.
More than 2,500 POWs died in this camp during the war.
According to prison camp and other historical records, Pvt. Hennessey died on Nov. 1, 1942. He was reportedly buried in Common Grave 704 (CG704), but complications in the burial and recovery process precluded identifying his remains immediately 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. Two of the sets of remains from Common Grave 704 were identified, while the remaining eight were declared unidentifiable. The unidentified remains were buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial as Unknowns.
In 2018, as part of the Cabanatuan Project, the DPAA exhumed the Unknowns associated with CG704 for comparison to associated casualties. Laboratory analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available established one set of remains as those of Pvt. Hennessey.
To identify Hennessey'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 and mitochondrial genome sequence analysis.
Although interred as an Unknown in the Manila American Cemetery, Hennessey's grave was meticulously cared for over the past 70 years by the American Battle Monuments Commission. Today, Hennessey is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines. 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 their country, visit the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency website at www.dpaa.mil.
Or learn more on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa, www.linkedin.com/company/dodpaa, www.instagram.com/dodpaa/ or https://x.com/dodpaa.
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