The stays of a U.S. soldier who died greater than 80 years in the past in a Japanese prisoner of battle camp have been recognized, the navy stated on Monday.
Military Pfc. Arthur L. Pierce, 26, of Malden, Massachusetts, was captured and held on the camp within the Philippines previous to his dying throughout World Battle II. Pierce accounted for in July via mitochondrial DNA evaluation in addition to anthropological evaluation and circumstantial proof, the Protection POW/MIA Accounting Company stated in a press release.
Pierce was a member of the 803rd Engineer Battalion concerned in combating on the Bataan peninsula in 1942. He was amongst 1000's of U.S. and Filipino service members captured and held in POW camps after surviving the 65-mile Bataan Demise March, and one of many troopers who was reported as captured when U.S. forces in Bataan surrendered to Japan within the spring of that 12 months.
Pierce was held on the Cabanatuan camp the place he and the opposite POWs endured malnutrition and outbreaks of malaria and dysentery. Greater than 2,500 prisoners died in that camp through the battle, in keeping with the DPAA. Pierce died of illness on July 19, 1942, and was buried in a communal grave together with different prisoners who perished, the company stated, citing jail camp and historic data.
These stays had been relocated after the battle to a short lived navy mausoleum close to Manila. Twelve units of stays had been recognized in 1947 and the remainder, declared unidentifiable, had been buried on the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial. The unknown stays had been disinterred in 2018 and despatched to a laboratory in Hawaii for additional evaluation.
The DPAA introduced final week that Military Air Forces Pvt. Joseph E. Lescaut, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, who additionally died at Cabanatuan after the Bataan Demise March, had additionally just lately been accounted for.
Pierce can be buried in Augusta, Maine, at a future date, the DPAA stated. Anybody within the memorial preparations are requested to contact the Military Casualty Workplace.