 yearbook, 1937 |
Remember...George Brozovich
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| George Brozovich was born in Pennsylvania in 1919 to John and Katie Kostelic Brozovich. His parents were of Austrian heritage. According to the U.S. Federal Census, by 1930, Katie was head of the household, which included daughters Jennie, Katherine, and Sarah Rose and sons George, John, and Joseph. (An obituary for Joseph on Find A Grave indicates there was a sister, Ann Blaskovich, with no mention of Jennie, so it's possible to infer that Jennie and Ann were the same person. Indeed, Find A Grave and West Virginia marriage records show that Genevieve "Jennie" Brozovich - born in Croatia in 1910 - married Nicholas "Nick" Blaskovich in Ohio County in 1942, although there is no documentation that her middle name might have been Ann.) By 1930, the family was firmly domiciled in Triadelphia, Ohio County, West Virginia, where the children attended local schools. George is shown in the 1936 Triadelphian yearbook as a junior and a member of the golf team. The 1937 yearbook notes, under his senior picture, that he "is bashful, has a nice smile, and will be a bookkeeper." |  The 1936 Triadelphian shows George (front row, left) on the school's golf team |
The next documentation we have of the life of George Brozovich is his enlistment in the U.S. Army (U.S. Army World War II Enlistment Records, 1938-1946). On September 20, 1940, he enlisted at Fort Hayes, Columbus, and was branched into the Army Air Corps. His record states that he is single, without dependents, has had four years of high school, and his civilian occupation is that of semiskilled miners and mining-machine operators.
 A bugler amidst the Walls of the Missing, Manila American Cemetery. Courtesy American Battle Monuments Commission |
With a report date of May 7, 1942, Private Brozovich was dispatched to the Pacific Theater of Operations, where he was part of the 34th Pursuit Squadron, 24th Pursuit Group. Two months later, July 4, 1942, George would be dead, having died of malaria as a result of his imprisonment in the horrendous Cabanatuan Prison Camp. (U.S, World War II Hospital Admission Card Files, 1942-1954.) Remains of the Cabanatuan casualties, unidentified, were interred at the Manila American Cemetery. |
With the advent of DNA testing, however, it has become possible to identify some of those remains with the aid of close relatives who have agreed to be tested. Pvt. George Brozovich is one such case. According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA),
Following the Allied surrender on the Bataan Peninsula on April 9, 1942, the Japanese began the forcible transfer of American and Filipino prisoners of war to various prison camps in central Luzon, at the northern end of the Philippines. The largest of these camps was the notorious Cabanatuan Prison Camp. At its peak, Cabanatuan held approximately 8,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war that were captured during and after the Fall of Bataan. Camp overcrowding worsened with the arrival of Allied prisoners who had surrendered from Corregidor on May 6, 1942. Conditions at the camp were poor and food and water supplied 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. Prisoners were forced to bury the dead in makeshift communal graves often completed without records or markers. As a result, identifying and recovering remains interred at Cabanatuan was difficult in the years after the war.Private George Brozovich joined the U.S. Army Air Forces from West Virginia and served with the 34th Pursuit Squadron, 24th Pursuit Group in the Philippines during World War II. He was captured following the Allied surrender and eventually interned at the Cabanatuan Prison Camp, where he died of malaria on July 4, 1942. He was buried in a communal grave in the camp cemetery along with other deceased American POWs; however, his remains could not be associated with any remains recovered from Cabanatuan after the war. Today, Private Brozovich is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines. ("Personnel Profile: PVT George Brozovich," accessed 9 April 2021, https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000XffPEAS.)
As this article is being written, while his status is still "unaccounted for," DPAA assesses Pvt. Brozovich's case to be in the analytical category of Active Pursuit. It seems important to honor him now with a biography, recognizing at the same time that another chapter in his story is forthcoming. It is hoped that an epilogue can be written in the near future.
Article prepared by Patricia Richards McClure
April 2021
West Virginia Archives and History welcomes any additional information that can be provided about these veterans, including photographs, family names, letters and other relevant personal history.
