WASHINGTON –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced today that U.S. Army Air Forces Tech Sgt. Truman G. Causey, 33, of Port Vincent, Louisiana, who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for April 4, 2025.
Causey’s family recently received their full briefing on his identification, therefore, additional details on his identification can be shared.
In late 1941, Causey was a member of 17th Bombardment Squadron, 27th Bombardment Group, 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. Causey 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, Causey died Nov. 15, 1942, and was buried along with other deceased prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 721.
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 1947, the AGRS examined the remains in an attempt to identify them. Of the 15 sets recovered from Common Grave 721, five were identified. The remaining 10 were declared unidentifiable. The unidentified remains were buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial (MACM) as Unknowns.
In June 2018, as part of the Cabanatuan Project, the remains associated with Common Grave 721 were disinterred and sent to the DPAA laboratory for analysis.
To identify Causey’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological and isotope analysis as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial, Y-chromosome, and autosomal DNA analysis as well as mitochondrial genome sequencing data.
Although interred as an Unknown in MACM, Causey’s grave was meticulously cared for over the past 70 years by the American Battle Monuments Commission.
Causey will be buried in Dubach, Louisiana in November 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.
Read Causey’s initial ID announcement here: Causey.