WEST CHESTER - State Sen. Andy Dinniman announced today that a DNA sample has been obtained from a relative of Master Sgt. John Gerhard Linkowski, a Chester County resident who went Missing in Action (MIA) in 1950 while serving in the Korean War.

The DNA may be the key to identifying his remains. The DNA will be compared to remains being held in Hawaii at the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command Central Identification Laboratory. The identification process is expected to take several months.

“In appealing to the public for information about Sgt. Linkowski, I was contacted by a genealogist, who, while under contract with the U.S. Army had recently located Linkowski’s brother and collected a DNA sample for the federal database,” Dinniman said. “As it turns out, the Army had just obtained the needed DNA, but its list of missing soldiers for whom DNA is needed had not been updated.”

Dinniman took up the cause of finding Linkowski’s relatives after being approached by the Coalition of Families of Korean and Cold War POW/MIAs, which is assisting the federal government in linking Pennsylvania’s MIAs with remains being held in Hawaii at the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command Central Identification Laboratory. Coalition President Robin Piacine asked Dinniman and fellow legislators to help find the relatives of 340 Pennsylvania soldiers who went missing in action in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, and are presumed dead.

"It is with the assistance of our country's leaders such as Senator Dinniman, that the families of our missing heroes and the public become aware of the critical need to identify our missing through methods such as the collection of mtDNA. M. Sgt. Linkowski is one of the 8,100 plus servicemen that are still missing from the Korean War nation-wide and knowing that the mtDNA has been collected enables one more family the opportunity to contribute towards the identification process, as well as the possibility of helping to identify someone else. Senator Dinnimin's dedication to this cause is a visible and notable contribution as well as a critical step towards bringing the missing soldiers Home | Biography | Newsroom | Links | Contact | Webmaster|Home | Biography | Newsroom | Links | Contact | Webmaster|Home | Biography | Newsroom | Links | Contact | Webmaster|Home | Biography | Newsroom | Links | Contact | Webmaster|Home | Biography | Newsroom | Links | Contact | Webmaster|Home | Biography | Newsroom | Links | Contact | Webmasterto their families, and we at the Coalition of Families of Korean and Cold War POW/MIAs are extremely grateful,” Piacine said.

After cross-referencing the list of Pennsylvania MIAs with names listed on Chester County Hall of Heroes, a monument to the county’s fallen veterans, he came across Linkowski’s story.

Little is known about Linkowski except that he was born on June 22, 1919, and resided in Chester County. An Army heavy weapons infantryman with Company M, 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Calvary Division, Linkowski was listed as MIA on Nov. 2, 1950, while fighting the enemy near Unsan, North Korea. He was officially presumed dead three years later. For his leadership and valor, Linkowski was awarded the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Purple Heart and various other service medals.

Anthony Polito, who helped create the Hall of Heroes memorial to Chester County veterans and is involved in documenting their life stories, thanked the senator for his role in helping find the brother of Sgt. John Linkowski.

“We had very little information on Sgt. Linkowski,” Polito said. “But now with this new information and new contact, we will try to get the information we need to better tell M. Sgt. John Linkowski’s story and better recognize what he did for our country.”

“With each discovery like this, we get closer to our goal of creating a complete picture of each person listed on the Hall of Heroes memorial in the Chester County Courthouse,” Polito said. “In this case, having this link to Sgt. Linkowski greatly increases the chances that we will be able to tell his story and share it with the community and especially students in our schools.”

Dinniman said, “I’m just glad we have located the DNA necessary to identify Linkowski’s remains. Even though it had been taken previously, if we hadn’t asked the public for information, we may have never learned of the sample’s existence.”

“Obtaining DNA from surviving family members is the key to putting names and faces on the fallen and providing closure for some families,” Dinniman added. “That is why I am dedicated to working for the fullest possible accounting of all of our missing servicemen and women.”

If you have any questions or information about other missing soldiers from the Chester and Montgomery County area, please call Sen. Dinniman’s West Chester office at 610-692-2112 or e-mail andy@pasenate.com.

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