WASHINGTON — David E. Holeman, who was 39 when he was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, has finally been accounted for more than 80 years after his death.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced Monday that Holeman’s remains had been identified earlier this year.
Holeman, of LaHarpe, was a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army Air Force. In late 1941, Holeman was a member of the 17th Pursuit Squadron when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands in December.
Intense fighting continued until the surrender of the Bataan peninsula on April 9, 1942, and of Corregidor Island on May 6, 1942.
Thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members were captured and interned at POW camps, according to a DPAA press release.
Holeman was among those reported captured when U.S. forces in Bataan surrendered to the Japanese. They were subjected to the 65-mile Bataan Death March and then held at the Cabanatuan POW camp. More than 2,500 POWs perished in this camp during the war.
According to prison camp and other historical records, Holeman died July 19, 1942, and was buried along with other deceased prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 312.
Following the war, American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) personnel exhumed those buried at the Cabanatuan cemetery and relocated the remains to a temporary U.S. military mausoleum near Manila.
In 1947, the AGRS examined the remains in an attempt to identify them. Twelve sets of remains from Common Grave 312 were identified, but the rest were declared unidentifiable. The unidentified remains were buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial as Unknowns.
In early 2018, the remains associated with Common Grave 312 were disinterred and sent to the DPAA laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, for analysis.
To identify Holeman’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological analysis as well as circumstantial evidence. Scientists From the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA analysis as well.
The remains were positively identified Aug. 23.
A funeral ceremony for Holeman is planned for April 23 in Independence.
ACCORDING to news reports at the time, Holeman and wife, Zora, had been living in Manila for seven years prior to the Japanese Invasion. David worked as a superintendent for an oil company.
As the tensions with Japan became evident in 1941, Zora was ordered to evacuate. She moved to Evansville, Ind., while David — a 12-year veteran of the air corps — resigned his position with the oil company and went back into the Army, where he served under Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
