HR0904 103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0904 LRB103 42716 MST 75953 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, It is highly fitting that the Illinois House of Representatives pays honor and respect to those who have served our country and State and, in doing so, have made the ultimate sacrifice; and

WHEREAS, The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced that U.S. Army Private First Class Harry Jerele of Berkeley, who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for on December 20, 2023; and

WHEREAS, PFC Jerele was born to Leopold Jerele and Mary Flori-Jerele in Clinton, Iowa on February 1, 1916; he and his family eventually resettled in Berkeley, Illinois; and

WHEREAS, PFC Jerele was a member of the 33rd Tank Company of the Illinois National Guard in Maywood; after his unit was called to federal service on September 1, 1940, he became a member of the 192nd Tank Battalion, Company B in the U.S. Army, which included 104 soldiers from Illinois, and was deployed to the Philippines; and

WHEREAS, In the summer of 1941, PFC Jerele and the 192nd Tank Battalion were serving in the Philippines when Japanese forces invaded the country in December 1941; intense fighting continued until the surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on April 9, 1942 and of Corregidor Island on May 6, 1942, leading to thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members being captured and interned at POW camps; and

WHEREAS, PFC Jerele was among those reported captured when U.S. forces in Bataan surrendered to the Japanese; he and fellow POWs were subjected to the 65-mile Bataan Death March and then held at the Cabanatuan POW Camp, where more than 2,500 POWs perished during the war; and

WHEREAS, According to prison camp and other historical records, PFC Jerele died on December 28, 1942, and he was buried along with other deceased prisoners in Common Grave 804 of the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery; and

WHEREAS, Following the war, American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) personnel exhumed those buried at the Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery and relocated the remains to a temporary U.S. military mausoleum near Manila; the AGRS examined the remains in an attempt to identify them in 1947; while two sets of remains from Common Grave 804 were identified, the remaining two were declared unidentifiable, which included those of PFC Jerele; the unidentified remains were buried as Unknowns at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial (MACM); and

WHEREAS, In early 2020, the remains associated with Common Grave 804 were disinterred and sent to the DPAA laboratory for analysis; to identify PFC Jerele's remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence; additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis; and

WHEREAS, Although interred as an Unknown in MACM, PFC Jerele's grave was meticulously cared for by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) for the past 70 years; and

WHEREAS, PFC Jerele will be buried with full military honors at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood on October 4, 2024; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we recognize U.S. Army Private First Class Harry Jerele for making the ultimate sacrifice in service to his State and country during World War II; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the family of PFC Jerele as an expression of our deepest sympathy.