WASHINGTON –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced today that U.S. Army 2nd Lt. William B. Bucey, 29, of Cleveland, Ohio, who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for March 3, 2025.
Bucey’s family recently received their full briefing on his identification, therefore, additional details on his identification can be shard.
In 1942, Bucey was a member of 121st Infantry Regiment, Philippine Army, which conducted guerrilla operations behind Japanese lines after the invasion of the island of Luzon in the Philippines. Conventional fighting ended with the surrender of the Bataan peninsula on April 9, 1942, and of Corregidor Island on May 6, 1942, but Bucey's unit continued to resist. Bucey was eventually captured by the Japanese and sent to 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, Bucey died Oct. 31, 1944, and was buried along with other deceased prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 836.
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. Two of the sets of remains from Common Grave 836 were identified based on dental comparisons. The remaining four were declared unidentifiable and interred at Manila American Cemetery and Memorial (MACM) as Unknowns, including one set designated X-559.
In December 2020, as part of the Cabanatuan Project, DPAA exhumed the remains associated with Common Grave 836 and sent them to the DPAA laboratory for analysis.
To identify Bucey’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental, anthropological, and radio isotope analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA and mitochondrial genome sequencing data.
Although interred as an Unknown in MACM, Bucey’s grave was meticulously cared for over the past 70 years by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC). Today, Bucey 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.
Bucey will be buried in Mayfield Heights, Ohio in August 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 their country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil or on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa, https://www.linkedin.com/company/dodpaa, https://www.instagram.com/dodpaa/, or https://x.com/dodpaa.
Bucey’s personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000XgtaEAC.
Read Bucey's initial ID announcement here: Bucey.