https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000XfFxEAK

On October 17, 2019, the Defense MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Private William D. Hedtke, missing from World War II.

Private Hedtke, who entered the U.S. Army from Wisconsin, served with Battery B, 319th Glider Field Artillery Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division. On September 18, 1944, during Operation Market Garden, Private Hedtke was aboard a glider that crashed near the border of Germany and the Netherlands. He died from injuries sustained during this hard glider landing, but Private Hedtke's body was not recovered at the time. In 1945, a set of human remains was recovered by Canadian graves registration personnel near a glider's wreckage just east of Groesbeek, Netherlands. Attempts by the American Graves Registration Command to identify this set of remains were unsuccessful at the time, and the remains were then interred at the Netherlands American Cemetery as an unknown. In 2016, DPAA disinterred this set of remains for scientific analysis and possible association with an Operation Market Garden casualty. The remains were brought to the DPAA laboratory where scientists used circumstantial evidence and laboratory analyses to identify Private Hedtke.

Private Hedtke is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten.

https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/News-Releases/PressReleaseArticleView/Article/1998837/soldier-accounted-for-from-world-war-ii-hedtke-w/

PRESS RELEASE | Nov. 25, 2019

Soldier Accounted For From World War II (Hedtke, W.)

WASHINGTON – The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Pvt. William D. Hedtke, 28, of Iola, Wisconsin, killed during World War II, was accounted for Oct. 17, 2019.

(This identification was initially published Oct. 25, 2019.)

In 1944, Hedtke was assigned to Battery B, 319th Glider Artillery Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division. Army officials reported he died of injuries sustained in a hard glider landing near Groesbeek, Netherlands, during Operation Market Garden on Sept. 18, 1944. His remains were not recovered after the war.

In June 1945, Canadian graves registration personnel recovered a set of American remains near Groesbeek that were given to the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC). After unsuccessful efforts by the AGRC to identify the remains, they were designated X-1230 Margraten and interred as an Unknown at the Netherlands American Cemetery.

In 2016, DPAA disinterred X-1230 to be scientifically analyzed for possible association to an Operation Market Garden casualty.

To identify Hedtke’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y-chromosomal (Y-STR) analysis.

DPAA is grateful to the American Battle Monuments Commission and to the U.S. Army Regional Mortuary-Europe/Africa for their partnership in this mission.

Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, more than 400,000 died during the war. Currently there are 72,635 service members still unaccounted for from World War II with approximately 30,000 assessed as possibly recoverable. Hedtke’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Margraten American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Margraten, Netherlands, along with the others missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

For family information, contact the Army Service Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.

Hedtke will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia 8/30/2021 Section Section 32 Grave 404.

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, find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or call (703) 699-1420.

https://www.dvidshub.net/image/6809914/us-army-private-william-d-hedtke-funeral

William D Hedtke