ABBOTSFORD, WI (WTAQ) – More than 70 years after his death the remains of a Wisconsin World War II soldier have been identified.
27-year-old Marine Corps Capt. Lester A. Schade of Abbotsford was held as a prisoner of war after being captured by enemy forces in the Philippine Islands in April of 1942.
On December 14, 1944, Schade was loaded aboard a Japanese transport en route to Japan, along with 1,600 other prisoners, when it was attacked by American carrier planes, killing a number of American prisoners onboard.
Survivors were attacked again by American carrier planes after being transported on other ships to present-day Taiwan.
Schade was aboard the Enoura Maru when it was attacked on January 9, 1945, according to records.
He was listed as missing and presumed dead following the attack.
The survivors of the Enoura Maru attack reported that the bodies of men killed on the ship were cremated by the Japanese and buried at Takao Harbor, while not all remains were cremated.
The American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) recovered Schade’s remains from a cemetery in May and June of 1946 and they were interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, while they could not be identified at the time.
On October 31, 2017, scientists used dental and anthropological analysis and were able to positively identify his remains.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for at the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in the Philippines, along with the other MIAs from WWII.
More than 400,000 of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II died during the war.
72,917 service members currently are still unaccounted for from WWII.
