WWII Veteran Returns Home To Plymouth After 82 Years

U.S. Army Pvt. Erwin Henry Schopp of Plymouth, was finally laid to rest in his home state after 82 years.According to prison camp and other historical records, Schopp died on January 1, 1943, at age 30, and was buried along with other deceased prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in the Philippines. In late 1941, Schopp was a member of Headquarters Battery, 59th Coastal Artillery Regiment, when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands in December. Intense fighting continued until the surrender of the Bataan peninsula on April 9, 1942, and of Corregidor Island on May 6, 1942.On July 16, Schopp’s remains were escorted to Plymouth by the Nebraska State Patrol and American Legion. Funeral services were held Friday morning, July 18, at the Woodlawn Cemetery in Plymouth, with military honors conducted by the Nebraska Army National Guard Honor Guard and American Legion Post No. 243 of Plymouth.The Nebraska Army National Guard Honor Guard presented the flag to Schopp’s nephew John Mueller. Schopp’s Military CareerThousands of U.S. and Filipino service members were captured and interned at POW camps. Schopp was among those reported captured when U.S. forces on Corregidor surrendered to the Japanese. He was subsequently held at the Cabanatuan POW camp. More than 2,500 POWs perished in this camp during the war.Schopp entered the U.S. Army from Nebraska and served with Headquarters Battery of the 59th Coast Artillery Regiment in the Philippines during World War II. He was captured on Corregidor Island following the American surrender on May 6, 1942, and ultimately interned in the notorious Cabanatuan Prison Camp in Nueva Ecija Province, where he died on January 1, 1943. At its peak, Cabanatuan held approximately 8,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war that were captured during and after the Fall of Bataan. Conditions at the camp were poor, with food and water extremely limited, leading to widespread malnutrition and outbreaks of malaria and dysentery. By the time the camp was liberated in early 1945, approximately 2,800 Americans had died at Cabanatuan. According to records, Schopp was buried in a Common Grave 822 at the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery along with other deceased American POWs. How Schopp was IdentifiedFollowing the war, American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) personnel exhumed those buried at the Cabanatuan cemetery and relocated the remains to a temporary U.S. military mausoleum near Manila. In 1947, the AGRS examined the remains in an attempt to identify them. Remains that could not be identified at the time were buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial as Unknowns. In 2018, unidentified remains associated with Common Grave 822 were disinterred and sent to the DPAA laboratory for analysis, but Schopp’s remains were not found to be among those. However, in December 2020, remains from Common Grave 836 were exhumed for further study, and it was discovered that remains, or records of the remains, from the two graves had been confused during the course of burial or recovery operations. Ultimately, the laboratory analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available established an association between one set of the unknown remains from Common Grave 836 and Schopp.Schopp is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.His photograph is also on display in his hometown.

Accident Monday

Residents Ask For Relief From E Street Dust

Related Articles

High Winds Fuel Multiple Wild Fires in SE Nebraska

Sen. Ricketts Makes the Case for War

City Offices Closed During Move

A Broken Wire Over Railroad Tracks Leaves City in the Dark