Army Medic’s Remains Identified and Buried with Full Honors at Houston National Cemetery

On Monday, officers took the body of Army medic Pfc. Nicholas Hartman to Houston National Cemetery, ending an 80-year trip home.

It was June 6, 1944, during the D-Day attack of Normandy, that Hartman died. He was 20 years old. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) proved his identity this summer through DNA testing and an anthropological review. He had been listed as missing in action for decades.

The 500th Medical Collecting Company of the 60th Medical Battalion was where Hartman served. His ship, Landing Craft Infantry (Large) 92, was taking about 200 troops to Omaha Beach on D-Day. A mine went off under the ship, and the enemy fired weapons at it. The explosion set the ship's fuel on fire, quickly killing everyone in the troop compartment. Military records say, "The chaos made it impossible to search for survivors."

Later, other soldiers found the burned bodies in the wreckage and buried them at the U.S. Military Cemetery in St. Laurent-sur-Mer, France. Hartman's name was carved into the Walls of the Missing at Normandy American Cemetery. A flower will now be placed there to show that he is remembered.

An emotional parade carried Hartman's body from Klein Funeral Home to the Houston National Cemetery on Monday. The event had full military honors, the playing of "Taps," and two old World War II planes flying over. People in the family got together to see what they called a "miracle years in the making."

Norm Graves, Hartman's nephew, said, "I do not think anyone ever thought this day would come." "What a wonder!"

Hartman's family members were finally able to move on with their lives. Monica Price, his great-niece, said, "Thank you to the Defense Department and everyone who helped find him and bring him home."

Hartman is from Houston and was once in a local newspaper as a delivery boy for the Houston Chronicle when he was a teenager. In the 1940s article, he said, "My favorite things to do in my spare time are hunting and fishing."

Officials buried Hartman's body in Normandy in 1946 as one of several "Unknowns." After many years, on May 2, 2025, the DPAA confirmed his name by digging up the body in 2021 and using cutting-edge DNA technology to look at it.

The young medic who never made it to Omaha Beach was finally buried in his own country after almost 80 years. His family, neighborhood, and the country he died serving came to honor him.