Subscribe
FORT KNOX, Ky. – The remains of U.S. Army Air Forces Pfc. Glenn A. Harris, a Soldier killed during World War II, will be interred Sept. 30 at Pleyto Cemetery, Bradley, California. Kuehl-Nicolay Funeral Home, Paso Robles, California, will perform graveside services preceding the interment.
A native of Monterey, California, Harris was a member of the 93rd Bombardment Squadron, 19th Bombardment Group, when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands in December 1941. Intense fighting continued until the surrender of the Bataan peninsula April 9, 1942, and of Corregidor Island May 6, 1942.
Thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members, including Harris, were captured and interned at Prisoner of War camps when U.S. forces in Bataan fell to the Japanese. The men were subjected to the 65-mile Bataan Death March, then held at the Cabanatuan POW Camp No. 1, where more than 2,500 POWs perished during the war. According to prison camp and other historical records, Harris died July 26, 1942, and was buried along with other deceased prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 225. He was 26 years old.
Following the war, the American Graves Registration Service exhumed those buried at the Cabanatuan cemetery, relocating the remains to a temporary U.S. military mausoleum near Manila. In 1947, three sets of remains from Common Grave 225 were identified, the rest were declared unidentifiable and were buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial as unknowns.
In March 2018, those remains were disinterred by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency and sent to a DPAA laboratory for analysis. Harris was accounted for by the DPAA July 7, 2023, after his remains were identified using circumstantial evidence as well as anthropological, mitochondrial DNA, Y-chromosome DNA and autosomal DNA analysis.
Although interred as an unknown in MACM, Harris’ grave was meticulously cared for over the past 70 years by the American Battle Monuments Commission.
For additional information about Pfc. Harris, go to: https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/News-Releases/PressReleaseArticleView/Article/3517992/airman-accounted-for-from-wwii-harris-g/
To learn more about the Department of Defense’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, www.facebook.com/dodpaa, or call 703-699-1420/1169.
Media interested in covering and/or obtaining more information about the funeral and interment should contact the Army Casualty Office at 800-892-2490 and/or Kuehl-Nicolay Funeral Home, 805-238-4383.
-30-
| Date Taken: | 09.21.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 09.21.2023 09:02 |
| Story ID: | 453940 |
| Location: | FORT KNOX, KENTUCKY, US |
| Web Views: | 91 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Remains of World War II Soldier to be buried in Bradley, California, by Fonda Bock, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
