Helisek, Peter P. Jr.
Army Corporal

Peter P. Jr. Helisek from Fayette County Brownsville, Pennsylvania .

Parents: Peter P. Helisek

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Saturday, July 10, 1943
Death details: On April 15, 2025, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Cpl. Peter P. Helisek Jr., missing from World War II. Helisek entered the U.S. Army from Pennsylvania and served in Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. On July 10, 1943, he was killed on the first day of Operation Husky, which began in the early hours of the morning as ground troops moved onto the beaches of southeastern Sicily, where soft sand and shifting sandbars created congestion, exacerbated by enemy air attacks and artillery barrages. By mid-morning on July 10, between 150 and 200 American landing craft were stranded along the shoreline. Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration Command, Army Quartermaster Corps, the organization tasked with recovering missing American personnel in the European Theater, conducted final search and recovery operations of battlefields in Sicily, but found no information regarding Helisek. He was declared non-recoverable in 1948. In October 2020, the Department of Defense and the American Battle Monuments Commission exhumed one set of unknown remains from Sicily-Rome American Cemetery. The remains were transferred and accessioned into the DPAA laboratory for scientific analysis. The laboratory analysis and totality of circumstantial evidence identified the remains as those of Helisek.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Pittsburgh Post Gazette (1943), Daily Courier (1944)