Over 36,000 names cover the Walls of the Missing at Manila ABMC Cemetery.  The men unaccounted for during World War 2 all over the southwestern Pacific.  Most serving on ships sunk at sea or planes never coming home.  There are plenty of others, bodies never found in the jungles of the Solomons, New Guinea, the Philippines, Burma or other locations.

DNA IDENTIFICATION

Until the end of the 20^th century, identification remained difficult to accomplish, especially after more than fifty years on.  Enter DNA analysis.  If you check the ABMC brochures for World War 1 cemeteries, you gain figures of many unknown graves included.  Manila, as well, has many graves of unknown soldiers and sailors.  Figures of the number are not given on the brochure possibly because of the ongoing attempts to identify the remains through the DNA.

Three different DNA tests are available to the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Agency – DPAA:  autosomal short tandem repeat, Y chromosomal STR tests for nuclear DNA along with Mitochondrial DNA – mtDNA – testing to utilize mitochondrial DNA.  The mtDNA tests becoming the first tests used because of age and environmental degradation of DNA samples tested.  Criminal cases use autosomal nuclear DNA for exact identification.  For missing persons of over fifty years, the remains are usually skeletal.  Here, mitochondrial DNA testing is much more effective.

DPAA does not just exhume all unknown graves in an ABMC cemetery.  Familial DNA must be located first with which a comparison can be made.  Because of time elapsed, the comparisons can be difficult to accomplish.  Many family members did not even know of relatives who lost their lives – the DPAA article on Spike Lee being a prime example.

ABMC NETWORK

 Many of the discoveries come from unknown graves within the ABMC network.  Burials at an ABMC cemetery are the result of several burial-exhumation cycles.  Soldiers originally lie buried on the battlefield or at a hospital complex during a conflict.  Afterwards, the many cemeteries become fewer – many of the bodies sent home for burial.  Those not sent home became congregated into either an ABMC cemetery or sent to a Veterans Cemetery like Arlington.

Other remains became slowly discovered as bodies uncover with time, especially in the case of plane mishaps.  Many names on the Walls of the Missing at Manila ABMC come from pilots, crew or passengers on planes that crashed.  Several crashes occurred in the dense jungles of New Guinea.  On several occasions, crews have gone out to investigate crash sites and bring back remains.  With DNA analysis today, the remains -formerly buried “unknown” – now identifiable.

Rosettes go next to names on the Walls of the Missing when their remains become identified.  Of the 36,000+ there are not that many.  Yet, those there are reflect a major attempt at finding what can be.  The website Pacific Wrecks describes several crash sites in New Guinea with remains identified – in many cases within the 3,660 unknown graves of Manila ABMC.

AIRPLANE CRASHES

Example – B-24D Mr. Five by Five crashed in the mountains of New Guinea during a thunderstorm 9 October 1944.  Mr. Five by Five was a popular song from 1942 about Jimmy Rushing, a member of Count Basie’s band. The crash site rediscovered in 2002, with remains and dog tagstaken to the US Embassy in Port Moresby. 

DPAA team excavated the site and removed nine remains to a DPAA laboratory in Hawaii. The nine remains identified in 2006 and buried at Arlington National Cemetery, three in individual burials.  Their names remain on the Walls of the Missing in Manila, but now with rosettes besides their names.

Weezie was another B-24D.  22 March 1944 saw the plane take off from Seven Mile Drome – the international airport for Port Moresby today – with three crew members and nineteen passengers bound for Nadzab Airfield to the north.  Flying over the Owen Stanley Range, the plane crashed into Mount Thumb killing all aboard.

The crash site of Weezie went undiscovered until the early 1980’s by hunters who reported the discovery to the Papua New Guinea Museum.  The site, investigated by the DPAA between 23 and 29 April 1982, with remains removed for identification and eventual burial in the US.  More human remains were discovered a year later with these turned in to the DPAA, as well.  The men’s remains lie in various cemeteries across the US. 

One young man, second lieutenant Harvey Landrum – a P-38 pilot, was not listed on the airplane manifest.  He was catching a ride back to his squadron.  Officially, listed as AWOL until the discovery of the crash site occurred and the remains identified.  Landrum lies at rest in his hometown of Kilgore, Texas, buried in 1983.

CABANATUAN PRISONER OF WAR CAMP

There were several men who died unknown at the Cabantuan Prisoner of War prison.  After the war, the American Graves Registration Service did what it could to identify prisoner remains.   Comingling of the dead and Japanese disregard for prisoners led to many prisoners – more than 2,500 at Cabantuan alone – unaccounted for.

Common Grave 437, marked as “unknown” at Manila ABMC, was disinterred in 2016 and sent to the lab for analysis.   Dental, circumstantial and mtDNA used, discovered the remains of Chief Machinst Mate Lada Smisek.  Interred as an “unknown” for over 70 years, a rosette went up next to his name on the Wall of the Missing with his remains buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific on 29 January 2021.

missing coast guardsman

Another former prisoner at Cabantuan was Coast Guardman, Lieutenant Thomas J. E. Crotty.  A graduate of the US Coast Guard Academy in 1934, he served aboard the USS Quail in 1941-2.  Crotty became one of the thousands captured from Corregidor in May 1942, the first Coast Guardsman to be a prisoner of war since 1812. Sent to Cabantuan prison, he contracted diphtheria and died 19 July 1942. Later re-buried in a grave at Manila ABMC determined as “unknown”.  Crotty life story goes well beyond this and is told here.

Samples were sent to the DPAA lab in 2018, the remains were determined to be those of Lieutenant Crotty.  His name on the Wall of the Missing now marked with a rosette.  His remains reburied 2 November 2019 in Buffalo, New York.

EXHIBITS SHOWN – QUESTIONS RAISED

In the excellent new Visitor Center for the Cemetery are a couple of exhibits detailing the difficulties involved with burying the dead. After World War 1, the Defense Department set down two options for grieving families. First, they could let their loved ones lie in foreign soil in a military cemetery – Manila ABMC, in this case – with care in perpetuity. Or, they could have the government bring home the remains, at government cost, to bury where the family chose.

In either case, the remains could go through several exhumations and reburials. Cemeteries and battlefields lie scattered over thousands of miles in the southwestern Pacific. Artillery and mortar shells could blow bodies apart. Many times, graves held remains of more than one individual. After the war, as was the case with World War 1, the many burial places became concentrated. From these secondary cemeteries, the remains either repatriated to the US – about 171,000 remains or 61% – or buried here at Manila ABMC or the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu depending on which part of the Pacific, the individual perished.

Bud kelder

One exhibit shows the case of Private Arthur H. “Bud” Kelder. Kelder was working at the Sternberg Central Hospital in Manila when the Japanese attack at the end of 1941. He was sent to make up part of the staff of the General Hospital #2 on Bataan in January 1942. When American forces surrendered 9 April, Kelder made up one the survivors making the Death March to Camp O’Donnell, first, and then Cabanatuan. 19 November 1942, he died of malnutrition and disease. His remains buried with eight to thirteen others in a single grave.

By 1946, over 40,000 unknown remains had been recovered. Identification in many cases difficult because of the condition of the remains of the POW’s.

After the war, the bodies went to Manila #2 Cemetery with four of the bodies identified through dental records. The others lie buried as “Unknown” at Manila ABMC. The Army knew, however, one of those bodies was Kelder. They told the family the body was non-recoverable. It took legal challenges from the family first to get the Army to release records – 2009. After the remains of Kelder became obvious, it took another challenge for the family to rebury the remains. Read much more about this story and others here.

Alexander ramsey nininger, jr

Alexander Nininger, Jr., was the first winner of the Medal of Honor in World War 2. He died helping comrades in the Philippine Scout 57th Regiment turn back an amphibious Japanese assault along the Abucay Line 12 January 1942. General Douglas MacArthur promoted Nininger’s name for the medal on a fast track. At this early phase in the war, America needed a hero. The medal awarded posthumously 29 January 1942 by President Roosevelt. His name appears in gold leaf on the Walls of the Missing.

The first lieutenant had only graduated from West Point in 1941. He was buried at Abucay on the west side of Bataan along with six other officers.

The problems with identification resulted from a misidentification of burial site by his commanding officer, Colonel George S. Clarke. Clarke, interestingly, withdrew on the last submarine out of Corregidor. He went on to become the historical consultant for the John Wayne movie, Back to Bataan. Clarke placed the burial of his officers at the Abucay church.

The men actually seem to have buried nearby in the town cemetery. Those bodies have been recovered but are buried in “unknown” graves at Manila ABMC. The Army subsequently sort of identified one of the “unknown” graves as that of Nininger, but they are reluctant to admit any error for fear others in the US will become unsure of whom they have buried.

bureaucratic forgettfulness

This and other cases of possible cover ups of known and unknown graves do not serve the Army or their surrogate, the DPAA, any good. Especially when only court orders from families become the only method of resolution.

GUADALCANAL

WHITTLESEY TRADITION EXTENDS INTO ANOTHER GLOBAL CONFLICT

A nearly complete skeleton was uncovered 13 October 1989 on Guadalcanal.  The remains eventually determined to be that of Private Frank Russell Whittlesey, nephew of the Charles Whittlesey Medal of Honor winner from World War 1.

14 September 1942 found Whittlesey’s platoon from the 1^st Marine Raider Battalion set up along a ridge just south of Henderson Airfield.  A large Japanese attack anticipated, and the men intended to delay the attackers.

That night, the platoon was overrun.  Whittlesey’s friend, Ed Shepard wounded in the fight and unable to retreat with the rest of the survivors pleaded with Whittlesey to leave him behind.  Using his shirt to dress Shepard’s wounds, Whittlesey helped his friend towards American lines.  Japanese soldiers discovered the pair and hand-to-hand combat ensued.  With knives are their only weapons, Whittlesey knifed two of the Japanese before being bayoneted in turn.  His last words, “Well Shep, I guess this is where we came in.”  Shepard survived and was recovered by his platoon the following day.

Attempts to recover Whittlesey’s body were unsuccessful on two occasions in 1947 and 1949.  A famer was digging a hole in 1989 finding an ID tag with Whittlesey’s name on it.  After DNA confirmation, he lies at rest in Massachusetts since 25 May 1992.  A rosette now placed next to his name on the Walls of the Missing.

ANOTHER MARINE IDENTIFIED

Another missing Marine, PFC Francis E. Drake of Springfield, Massachusetts, was found by another local on Guadalcanal digging an outdoor kitchen near his home.  Uncovering a skeleton, in 2011, he contacted the police and eventually the DPAA became involved.  Three sets of remains eventually uncovered on the property including one set with an ID tag issued to Drake.  In the subsequent analysis, DNA was inconclusive, but dental and other means enabled a positive identification of Drake in 2017.

Drake died on the west bank of the Matasnikau River attempting to bring a fellow wounded Marine to safety.  He died just before reaching protective ground.  A Silver Star awarded posthumously.  The young marine lies back home in Massachusetts today.

BURMA

Hulett Allen Thompson fought with Merrill’s Marauders in Burma.  He died in fighting at the siege of Myitkyina in June 1944.  His remains not found after the battle and eventually declared missing in 1948.

Remains of soldiers lost during the battle lay buried in several temporary cemeteries and among isolated burial locations.  His remains ended up transferred to the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu in 1949.  Buried as Unknown X-386, his remains became disinterred in July 2018.  A successful identification followed, and he came back to Carrollton, Georgia for re-burial.

Another veteran of the Burma front was Technician Fifth Grade Oneal Rush who served as a soldier with the Army Corps of Engineers.  He was aboard a C-47A Skytrain plane with six others en route to Myitkina on a supply mission.  The plane crashed and not until 2003 was the site discovered by locals.  A year later, after the site investigated by DPAA were Rush’s remains discovered.  He now lies buried in Galivants Ferry, South Carolina.

MINDANAO

Flying as a turret gunner on a Navy PBJ-1(better known as a B-25 Mitchell) assigned to a Marine bombing squadron, Corporal John Dewitt Rood’s plane disappeared over Mindanao in the Philippines.  The crash site discovered in 1956 and skeletal remains of the eight crew members removed.  Individual identification was impossible at the time, and all buried in a group burial in 1957 at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver.

Staff Sergeant Richard C. Vorel served as navigator-bombardier on the same plane as Rood.  Captain Doit Fish commanded the plane.  There remains also lie together in Denver.  The crew of the plane were all listed on the Walls of the Missing and were among the first to gain a rosette. 

brigadier general guy fort

Guy Oscar Fort was an American who came out to the islands as a young man. Dropping out of high school to enlist in the 4^th US Cavalry Regiment serving for three years from 1899 until his discharge in 1902.  Staying in the Philippines after his discharge, he joined the Philippine Constabulary as a 3^rd Lieutenant helping play a role during the Moro Rebellion.  He served mainly on Mindanao with the Constabulary until World War 2 reaching the rank of colonel.  Fort, a student of the peoples he lived among and was considered an expert on matters Moro.

With worsening of relations between Japan and the US, the Constabulary became part of the Philippine Army – the 2^nd Regular Division.  Fort went to Bohol in November 1941 – soon to become a new brigadier general – to command the 81^st Division – Philippine Army.  Moving the division to Lanao Province on Mindanao Fort planning to fight a delaying action while lying down supplies for an eventual guerilla campaign.  The men fought starting on 29 April 1942 through the next few weeks until receiving orders from high command to surrender.  Over his protests, he finally complied on 27 May, although he gave away rifles and other military equipment to local indigenous people to continue the fight.

Fort joined other captive generals from the southern regions of the Philippines – his commander William F. Sharp, Joseph P. Vachon and Manuel Roxas – for the boat ride back to Manila and confinement.  In September 1942, in the face of a Moro rebellion, Fort was brought back to Lanao to help get the Moro to surrender.  When he refused, he was executed around 11 November after being forced to dig his own grave. 

Lieutenant Colonel Yoshinari Tanaka, commander of both the 31^st Independent Infantry Battalion and the local POW camp, claimed he had been ordered by his commander Major General Ikuta in retaliation for an escape of three POW’s.  Other Japanese officers testifying at a 1948 war crime trial of Tanaka said, however, Tanaka independently ordered the execution and General Ikuta actually reprimanded Tanaka for the execution.  Tanaka was eventually found guilty and hanged in 1949.

Questions abound regarding possible identity of Fort’s remains.  His family joined in with other families in 2018 trying to get the DPAA to exhume the grave of an Unknown at Manila ABMC. His name honored in the meantime on the Walls of the Missing.