DETROIT (AP) — A Detroit soldier who was killed fighting Japanese forces in World War II will be laid to rest on Veterans Day in northern Michigan.
Army Technician Fourth Grade Pete M. Counter was 24 when he went missing in action, the Detroit Free Press reported .
Counter was killed in 1942 during intense engagement with Japanese forces in what is now Papua New Guinea, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. He was reportedly buried in an isolated grave in Indonesia.
Counter’s then-unidentified remains were interred at several U.S. temporary cemeteries until the American Graves Registration service exhumed them in 1947 along with 11,000 other graves.
The defense agency received authorization last year to re-examine the remains. They were recently identified through forensic analysis using DNA, dental records and circumstantial evidence.
He will be buried Saturday in Onaway with full military honors.
His name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at a monument site in the Philippines along with the names of other soldiers missing in action from the war. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he’s been identified.
