WASHINGTON –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced today that U.S. Army Pvt. Willard D. Merrill, 21, of Dover-Foxcroft, Maine, who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for August 19, 2024.
Merrill's family recently received their full briefing on his identification, therefore, additional details on his identification can be shared.
In late 1941, Merrill was a member of the 2nd Observation 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. Merrill 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 #1. More than 2,500 POWs perished in this camp during the war.
According to prison camp and other historical records, Merrill died Aug. 28, 1942, and was buried along with other deceased prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 305.
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. Three sets of remains from Common Grave 305 were declared unidentifiable. These unidentified remains were buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial (MACM) as Unknowns.
In January 2019, as part of the Cabanatuan Project, DPAA exhumed the remains associated with Common Grave 305 and sent them to the DPAA laboratory for analysis.
To identify Merrill’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome DNA analysis.
Although interred as an Unknown in MACM, Merrill’s grave was meticulously cared for over the past 70 years by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC). Today, Merrill 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 indicate he has been accounted for.
Merrill will be buried in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine, in June 2025.
For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.
DPAA is grateful to the ABMC and the United States Army for their partnership in this mission.
For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-pow-mia-accounting-agency.
Merrill’s personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000Lm6QEAS.
Read Merrill's initial ID announcement here: Merrill.