Remains of World War II Soldier to be buried in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Courtesy Photo | The remains of World War II Soldier Pvt. 1st Class Willard H. Brinks will be interred May 19, at Garfield Park Cemetery, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Brinks was reported killed in action Nov. 22, 1942, at age 24, near the Soputa-Sanananda Track - the first day of the Allied attack. His unit was part of an action to neutralize the Japanese threat to Port Moresby. Brinks’ unit attempted to flank the enemy defensive lines stretched across the Sanananda Track in northern Papua.  

FORT KNOX, KY, UNITED STATES

05.15.2023

Story by Fonda Bock 

U.S. Army Human Resources Command

FORT KNOX, Ky. – The remains of a Soldier killed during World War II will be interred May 19, at Garfield Park Cemetery, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Graveside services for Pvt. 1st Class Willard H. Brinks will be performed by Zaagman Memorial Chapel in Grand Rapids preceding the interment.

A native of Grand Rapids, Brinks was assigned to Company K, 3rd Battalion, 126th Infantry Regiment, 32nd Infantry Division, deployed in present day Papua New Guinea. As part of an attempt to neutralize the Japanese threat to Port Moresby, Brinks’ unit attempted to flank the enemy defensive lines stretched across the Sanananda Track in northern Papua. Brinks was reported killed in action Nov. 22, 1942, near the Soputa-Sanananda Track the first day of the Allied attack. He was 24 years old.

Following the war his remains could not be identified.

In recent years, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency reviewed an unidentified set of remains that U.S. Army personnel recovered from the vicinity of the Soputa-Sanananda Track. Laboratory analysis identified the remains as those of Brinks. He was accounted for by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency July 20, 2022.

His name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.

To learn more about the Department of Defense’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, www.facebook.com/dodpaa, or call [phone]/1169.

Media interested in covering and/or obtaining more information about the funeral and interment should contact the Army Casualty Office at [phone] and/or Zaagman Memorial Chapel, [phone].


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• Date Taken: 05.15.2023
• Date Posted: 05.15.2023 09:35
• Story ID: 444721
• Location: FORT KNOX, KY, US