The remains of Army Pfc. Anthony J. Lopa, a Soldier killed during the Korean War, will be interred June 28 at Brig. Gen. William C. Doyle Veteran Memorial Cemetery, Wrightstown, New Jersey. Maxwell Funeral Home, Little Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, will perform graveside services preceding the interment.
A native of North Arlington, New Jersey, Lopa was a member of Delta Battery, 82nd Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons (Self Propelled) Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was killed in action Aug. 31, 1950, while fighting the North Korean People’s Army along the Naktong River, near Yongsan-Myeon, South Korea. He was 17 years old.
Lopa was accounted for by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency July 21, 2023, after the remains of Korean War unknowns were exhumed for identification July 2018 from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, Hawaii.
The Past Conflict Repatriations Branch, under the Army Casualty and Mortuary Affairs Operations Division at U.S. Army Human Resources Command, Fort Knox, Kentucky, plays a key role in the process of locating Family members of missing Soldiers from World War II, the Korean and Vietnam wars.
The process begins with locating the Family member most closely related to the missing Soldier, known as the primary next of kin, followed by a request for Family reference samples or DNA, which are used as a main source in identifying remains.
Once a Soldier has been identified by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner, the PCRB notifies and briefs the Family about the results of historical, forensic and DNA reports, benefits and the mortuary process including burial with full military honors.
