Dr. Ruth Chen, Retired Col. Ron Novack Attend Ceremony for WWII Veteran Whose Remains Were Recently Identified

U.S. Army 1st Lt. Myles Esmay ’40 was killed on June 7, 1944, while fighting against Japanese forces in Burma (now Myanmar). He and others were unable to be identified at the time of his death, but in 2021, Esmay was formally identified by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. This allowed Esmay to not only be brought back home to the United States, but also buried alongside his brothers in arms at Arlington National Cemetery.

Relatives and friends celebrated Esmay’s life at a public ceremony held at the cemetery on Aug. 1. Among those in attendance were Dr. Ruth Chen, Professor of Practice in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, and Retired Col. Ron Novack, executive director of the Office of Veterans and Military Affairs.

Esmay was a Central New York native with roots in the Utica area. He received a scholarship to the New York State College of Forestry, originally founded within Syracuse University, where he graduated with honors in June 1940. While attending Syracuse, he joined ROTC, worked for the school newspaper and served as the director for the forestry club. After graduation, Esmay served as an infantry engineer in Company B of the 236th Engineer Combat Battalion.

While holding down an airfield being attacked by Japanese combatants, Esmay was killed in action. After the fighting ended, soldiers who gave their lives were buried in at least eight different sites. Known burials were then transferred to the U.S. military cemetery in Kalaikunda, India. During the 1947 exhumation of the cemetery, one set of remains not identified were subsequently buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. Those unidentified remains were noted as belonging to Esmay in 2019. Today, Myles Esmay is buried in honor at Arlington National Cemetery in Section 36.