The remains of a World War II veteran who went missing in action while serving in the Pacific Theater will soon be returned home to Bay City.
Technician Fifth Grade, or Corporal, James Torka was killed near Buna, Papua New Guinea, where he served as a mechanic in the 32nd Infantry Division.
The U.S. Army's Tec 5 designation was used exclusively between 1942-1948. These non-commissioned soldiers were colloquially referred to with the rank of Corporal.
Cpl. Torka was killed in Dec. of 1942 amid an offensive operation that took place in the middle of the Battle of Buna-Gona, which went on for three months. The objective of the operation was to push Japanese forces out of strategically critical airfields.
According to a Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency document obtained by WCMU, the exact circumstances or cause of his death were not documented. Torka was 36 years old.
Andrew Turner is with the Bay County Department of Veteran Affairs. He said the Army initially classified Torka's remains as non-recoverable due to the battlefield's rough terrain.
"It was pretty massive jungle and swamp terrain, fortified Japanese position, severe disease and hazards were in that area," Turner said "We do know he was buried in an isolated grave near where he fell, but they were never able to actually locate and identify him up until just this year."
Grave registration personnel didn't arrive in Papua New Guinea until 1943, about a year after the 32nd Infantry was deployed, DOD records said. Before that, collecting and identifying fallen soldiers was left to be carried out by troops in the area who were still fighting.
As a result, the effort to recover the remains of many fallen infantrymen was complicated by both environmental factors and disturbances from continued combat in the area.
Turner said following the war, it was assumed that Tec 5 Torka's remains would never be brought home. The successful identification of his remains is rare, Turner added.
"It's kind of an extraordinary feat of both science and diplomacy really, in engaging the local community there and helping find these and return him to his family," Turner said.
Sgt. Maj. Jim Bell works with the Army's Casualty and Mortuary Affairs Operations Division, and is helping oversee the ongoing process of returning the remains of Cpl. Torka back to Bay City.
He said Cpl. Torka's remains were identified through various methods, including the use of DNA technology.
His remains have already been returned to U.S. soil, Sgt. Maj. Bell said, and are currently at a DOD laboratory in Nebraska in preparation to be transferred to Bay City.
"We have notified the family that he's been identified and the Army will meet with the family," Bell explained. "We'll go through the details of his loss, recovery. And then once we do that, then we'll get the family's wishes to have him brought home and laid to rest."
Cpl. Torka is survived by his 85-year-old niece, Dolores Kerr of Bay City.
Kerr told WCMU she was an infant when her uncle was killed, but he still had a presence in her life.
"Everyone had a picture of my uncle smiling," Kerr said.
Kerr said she's "so excited" for Cpl. Torka's remains to be returned home to Bay City, where he'll be laid to rest beside his parents in St. Stan's Cemetery.
In the time before his identification, Tec 5 Torka's name was memorialized alongside over 36,000 missing soldiers on the Walls of the Missing in Manila American Cemetery, located in the Philippines.
He posthumously received a Purple Heart and Bronze Star for his service.
Efforts to recover and identify additional remains from MIA soldiers in the Pacific Theater, as well as other parts of the world, by the DOD's POW/MIA Accounting Agency, are ongoing.
"These soldiers paid the ultimate sacrifice," Sgt. Maj. Bell said. "So they deserve, and earned, for us to go back and do all that we could to bring them home."
