The Nebraska National Guard Museum took time Sept. 19 to remember prisoners of war and those still missing in action as part of POW/MIA Day.
Dr. Carrie Brown, who works at the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency Laboratory on Offutt Air Force Base was the featured speaker. As a forensic anthropologist, she works to put pieces together and find the missing.
She said 80,000 soldiers are still missing from the conflicts in which America fought. Many were on ships in World War II that were obliterated, so they may never be found and identified.
“By telling their stories, they are never forgotten,” Brown said.
She shared the story of Pvt. Erwin Schopf of Plymouth. Schopf was captured by the Japanese in December 1941 and was one of those in the Bataan Death March in the Philippines. Approximately 2,500 prisoners were interred in the Philippines, she said.
Schopf died Jan. 1, 1943 and was buried in a common grave. Brown said each grave was filled with the dead from that day.
“All our information is based on prisoners’ records,” she said.
In 1949, Schopf was declared non-recoverable. Brown said the unknown remains they work with at the lab are known as “x files.”
Four sets of remains were in Grave 822 in the Philippines, one of which was Schopf, according to the records. However, all the bones were mixed together. In 2020, grave 836 was added to Schopf’s possible resting place.
The anthropologists at the lab use dental records and DNA to try to identify the soldiers.
On Jan. 24, 2025, Schopf’s remains were identified.
“On a Friday morning in July, 2025, he was laid to rest in Plymouth,” Brown said.
She is also working to identify remains of soldiers who died on the USS Glennon, which struck a mine at Utah Beach on D-Day and partially sank. The U.S. tried to salvage it, but German gunners attacked the ship again two days later and sank it.
In 1957, pieces of the Glennon were recovered for salvage. Brown said a French woman found human remains in the wreckage.
Two unknowns, numbers 9296 and 9297, were buried after that, Brown said.
In 2022, they were disinterred from the Ardennes, and anthropologists discovered the remains were actually of four people, not two.
SM2C James Cuda of Bee was one of the soldiers on the Glennon whose body was never recovered.
Jerry Meyer, National Guard historian and museum director, said 707 Nebraskans are still considered missing in action.
POW/MIA Day began in 1979, he said. The flag, a white design on a black background, is the silhouette of an airman whose wife designed the flag.
The program Sept. 19 recognized five men who were either POWs or are MIA.
William Ahlschwede of Seward was also part of the Bataan Death March after being captured in 1942. He was a prisoner at the Cabantuan Prison Camp and was rescued in a daring night raid in 1945.
Earl Hoffman of Bee was a prisoner after being captured in North Africa. He was moved to several different camps and ended up in Altaburgand, Poland.
His nephew, Buzzy Hoffman, shared a few memories of his uncle. He said the family gathered either in Colorado or Nebraska every other year. One year, it was suggested to have soup, but Earl Hoffman said no.
Hoffman later found out from his cousin, Earl Hoffman’s son Dan, “his dad lived on boiled grass soup.”
Henry Strunc of Staplehurst was a bombardier stationed in England and was shot down over German in 1944. When he returned to the United States, he moved to Minnesota and worked in the POW movement.
Meyer said his dog tags were recently found in England. He’s hoping to be able to get them to display at the museum.
Gary Heinicke of Seward was a co-pilot on a B-24 and was shot down over Romania on D-Day. He was found by the underground and protected.
Heinicke, whose father was a pastor in Seward, was an uncle of Mark Kolterman, who said a veterinarian nursed Heinicke back to health.
“He was a proud soldier,” Kolterman said.
