LANSING, Mich. — The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that Army Pfc. Philip T. Hoogacker, 23, of Detroit, killed during the Korean War, was accounted for April 16, 2021.
In July 1950, Hoogacker was a member of Company D, 1st Battalion, 29th Infantry Regiment. He was reported missing in action on July 27 after his unit was attacked near Anui, South Korea. He was last seen after receiving first aid for a minor shrapnel wound. DPAA historians believe Hoogacker was captured by the Korean People’s Army and forcibly marched to Seoul and then on to Pyongyang, where he died as a prisoner of war.
In the fall of 1954, United Nations Command struck a deal with North Korea and China regarding the recovery and return of war dead to their rightful nations. This agreement, known as Operation GLORY, took place between Sept. 1 and Oct. 30, 1954. A set of remains, later labeled Unknown X-16833, was returned with three other sets of remains from a group burial. Two of the sets of remains were identified by the Central Identification Unit in Kokura, Japan, but the other two, including X-16833, couldn’t be identified. They were sent to Hawaii and interred with the rest of the Korean War recovered but unidentified remains as Unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.
In April 2018, during Phase 1 of the Korean War Disinterment Project, X-16833 was disinterred from the Punchbowl and transferred to the DPAA Laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii for analysis.
To identify Hoogacker’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.
Hoogacker’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.
Hoogacker will be buried July 23, 2021, in Livonia, Michigan.
For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.
DPAA is grateful to the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of the Army for their partnership in this mission.
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 or find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-pow-mia-accounting-agency.
Hoogacker’s personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt00000001VDHEA2.
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