Hartford
Hartford, IL · Municipal
Belleville News-Democrat
‘Uncle Joe' comes home: Belleville soldier missing since Korean War identified
Joseph Alfred Platzkoester was 28 when he was reported missing in action during the Korean War on May 30, 1951. Seventy-five years later, “Uncle Joe” has been accounted for and is being honored. The U.S. Army sergeant from Belleville was serving in Company H, 2nd Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, when his unit encountered a severe enemy roadblock and came under heavy attack from Chinese communist forces near Inje, South Korea. According to military reports, the battalion pushed through, but Platzkoester was reported missing after the action. Subsequent searches of the area failed to locate him or his remains. During searches for missing U.S. service members in 1951, the 148th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company recovered a set of remains. The Central Identification Unit in Kokura, Japan, was unable to identify them. In 1956, they were transported to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu for interment as an “unknown.” In November 2023, as part of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency’s project to disinter all Korean War unknowns from the Hawaiian cemetery for possible identification, the remains were disinterred and sent to a DPAA laboratory for further study. DNA testing, laboratory analysis and the totality of circumstantial
Collinsville Daily News
