BLUEFIELD, W.Va. – The remains of a Korean War soldier are coming home.
U.S. Army Sgt. Kester B. Hardman was a native of Smithville, West Virginia. Hardman was assigned to M Company, 3rd Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, and fought during the Korean War.
According to the U.S Army Human Resources Command, Hardman was reported missing in action December 1950 after his unit engaged in battle near Sunchon, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. According to historical documents, Hardman died a prisoner of war in the spring of 1952 at POW Camp 5, on the Pyoktong Peninsula.
Hardman was 22.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified Hardman in May 2024 after his remains were exhumed from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii in 2018 for laboratory analysis and identification.
Hardman will be buried on October 12 at Hardman Chapel Cemetery in Smithville.
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