WASHINGTON –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced today that U.S. Army Pvt. Blanchard E. Pruitt, 19, of Florien, Louisiana, who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for March 17, 2025.
Pruitt's family recently received their full briefing on his identification, therefore, additional details on his identification can be shared.
In late 1942, Pruitt was a member of the Medical Detachment, 31st Infantry Regiment, 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. Pruitt 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, Pruitt died on Jan. 1, 1943, and was buried in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Grave 822.
Following the war, American Graves Registration Service personnel exhumed those buried at the Cabanatuan cemetery and relocated the remains to a temporary U.S. military mausoleum near Manila. In 1948, the AGRS examined the remains in an attempt to identify them. One set of remains was recovered from Grave 822 but could not be identified as Pruitt. He was declared non recoverable on Dec. 2, 1949. The unidentified remains were buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial as an Unknown.
In December 2020, as part of the Cabanatuan Project, DPAA exhumed the remains associated with Grave 822 and sent them to the DPAA laboratory for analysis. DPAA also uncovered evidence of discrepancies between Grave 822 and Grave 836 and ultimately determined that Pruitt was buried in Grave 836.
To identify Pruitt’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 and Y-chromosome DNA analysis and mitochondrial genome sequencing data.
Although interred as an Unknown in MACM, Pruitt’s grave was meticulously cared for over the past 70 years by the American Battle Monuments Commission. Today, Pruitt 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.
Pruitt will be buried in Anacoco, Louisiana in September 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.
Pruitt’s personnel profile can be viewed at: https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000LlrfEAC
Read Pruitt's initial ID announcement here: Pruitt.