PITTSBURGH — A World War II soldier from Western Pennsylvania is finally coming home.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced on Friday that U.S. Army Pfc. John A. Walko, 20, of Commodore, Pennsylvania, was accounted for in July 2025.
The agency is releasing information now because his family was recently briefed on his identification.
The DPAA says Walko was assigned to Company C, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division in 1944. He was reportedly killed in action on Oct. 20 after his company encountered German enemy fire.
His remains were not accounted for after the war.
But, in November 1944, the American Graves Registration Command processed a set of unknown remains that were believed to be a person killed by mortar fire on Oct. 20, 1944. The remains could not be positively identifed at the time due to their conditions, so they were reinterred.
Then, in July 2023, DPAA says the remains were exhumed and transferred for analysis, then eventually identified as Walko through DNA analysis and anthropological analysis.
Walko’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Netherlands American Cemetery along with others missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
The DPAA says he will be buried in Indiana, Pennsylvania, on May 20.
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