FORT KNOX, Ky. – The remains of U.S. Army Private Leonard R. J. Jackson, 22, of Great Falls, Montana, who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, will be interred March 9, in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia. Everly-Wheatley Funeral Home will coordinate graveside services preceding the interment.
Jackson was a member of Battery L of the 60th Coast Artillery Corps (CAC), when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands in December 1941. Intense fighting continued until the surrender of the Bataan peninsula on April 9, 1942, when he was captured and forced on the Bataan Death March. He was ultimately interned in the notorious Cabanatuan Prison Camp in Nueva Ecija Province, where he died of dysentery on October 31, 1942.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency accounted for Jackson on Dec. 16, 2024.
For more information on DPAA’s efforts to locate and identify Pvt. Jackson’s remains, please visit: [https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/ID-Announcements/Article/4258240/soldier-accounted-for-from-world-war-ii-jackson-l/](https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/ID-Announcements/Article/4258240/soldier-accounted-for-from-world-war-ii-jackson-l/)
U.S. Army Human Resources Command’s Past Conflict Repatriations Branch plays a vital role in the process of identifying, locating and contacting subsequent generation family members of Soldiers missing or killed in action during WWII and the Korean War to positively identify previously undiscovered or unknown remains.
Media interested in covering and/or obtaining more information about the funeral and interment should contact Everly-Wheatley Funeral Home at 703-998-9200.