ELMORE, Ohio — The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) has officially identified the remains of U.S. Army Sgt. Howard L. Hasselkus, a 24-year-old from Elmore, who died as a prisoner of war during World War II . He was accounted for on Sept. 23, 2024, and his family recently received a full briefing on his identification.

Hasselkus served with the 192nd Tank Battalion, a group of soldiers from the Port Clinton area. Their departure was recounted in hometown newspapers as a patriotic but solemn moment. Few realized that the unit would become part of one of the war’s most harrowing chapters.

Of the men who deployed from Port Clinton with the 192nd Tank Battalion, only 10 returned home. Hasselkus was one of more than a dozen from the group who died in captivity.

In November 1941, Ha

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