WASHINGTON –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced today that U.S. Army Air Forces Technician Fourth Grade Howard B. Shorts, 23, who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for Oct. 23, 2025.
In late 1942, Shorts was assigned to 28th Materiel Squadron, 20th Air Base 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. Shorts 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, Shorts died on Oct. 27, 1942, of dysentery, malnutrition, beri beri, and malaria, was buried along with other deceased prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 702.
This is an initial release. The complete accounting of Shorts's case will be published once the family receives their full briefing.
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.