After remains identified after death in WWII, service will be held Tuesday for Gerald Hamann
Lyndonville native survived Bataan Death March, but died from dysentery in POW camp
LYNDONVILLE – The family for the late Gerald Hamann and the local veterans’ community will have a service for the World War II soldier on Tuesday morning, more than 75 years after his death.
Hamann survived the Bataan Death March but would then die of dysentery at a prisoner of war camp. He was buried in a mass grave with at least 100 other soldiers.
His remains were never positively identified until recently when his niece, Kathy Kage, submitted DNA into the ancestry.com database. Kage, a Lyndonville native who now lives in Texas, was contacted by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), which is tasked with identifying and repatriating the remains of fallen US service members.
Hamann was positively identified from Kage’s DNA file. Kage and other family members for Hamann will be giving him a funeral service at Lynhaven Cemetery at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday.
“It is quite significant that they can bring these men home,” said Steve Goodrich, commander of the Houseman-Tanner American Legion Post in Lyndonville.
