Lost in 1951, Korean War Soldier to be Laid to Rest in Illinois

U.S. Army Human Resources Command:

"FORT KNOX, Ky. — The remains of U.S. Army Sgt. Joseph Alfred Platzkoester, missing from the Korean War, will be interred November 11 at Green Mount Catholic Cemetery in Belleville, Illinois. Services and interment are being coordinated by Renner’s Funeral Home.

Platzkoester entered the U.S. Army from Illinois and served with Company H, 2nd Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division.

In late May of 1951, as the 38th Infantry Regiment pushed north along Route 31 towards the town of Inje, South Korea, Platzkoester's 2nd Battalion encountered an enemy roadblock.

The battalion pushed through, but Platzkoester was reported missing in action following the action. Subsequent searches of the area failed to locate him or his remains.

During search efforts in 1951 for U.S. service members missing from the Korean War, the 148th Quartermaster Graves Registration Companyrecovered a set of remains.

The Central Identification Unit in Kokura, Japan, was unable to identify the remains, and in 1956, they were transported to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP), in Honolulu, Hawaii, for interment as an Unknown.

In November 2023, as part of DPAAs project to disinter all Korean War Unknowns from the NMCP for possible identification, the set of remains was disinterred and sent to the DPAA laboratory for further study.

There, the laboratory analysis and total circumstantial evidence identified the remains as those of Platzkoester.

The Defense Pow/Mia Accounting Agency accounted for Platzkoester on May 29, 2026.

For more information on DPAA’s efforts to locate and identify Platzkoester, please visit: [https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt00000004q14EAA](https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt00000004q14EAA)

U.S. Army Human Resources Command’s Past Conflict Repatriations Branch plays a vital role in the process of identifying, locating and contacting subsequent generation family members of Soldiers missing or killed in action during WWII and the Korean War to positively identify previously undiscovered or unknown remains.

Media interested in covering and/or obtaining more information about the funeral and interment should contact Renner's Funeral Home, 618-233-5400."