WWII soldier killed as prisoner of war identified 82 years later
By Ricardo Tovar
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SALINAS, California (KSBW) — The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Friday that a World War II prisoner of war was identified on Friday.
U.S. Army Corporal Raymond N. DeCloss of Salinas was accounted for on April 29, 2024.
Corporal DeCloss was a member of Company C, 194th Tank Battalion, U.S. Army when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands in December 1941. Fighting ensued and ended with the surrender of the Bataan peninsula on April 9, 1942, and of Corregidor Island on May 6, 1942.
DeCloss was among the thousands 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 #1. More than 2,500 POWs perished in this camp during the war,” per a media release from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
DeCloss died on Nov. 15, 1942, and was buried along with other dead prisoners at the Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 721, according to prison camp and historical records.
Dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence, was used to identify DeCloss’ remains.
DeCloss is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines. A rosette will be placed next to his name to show that he has been accounted for.
DeCloss will next be buried in the Arlington National Cemetery, on a later date.
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