WASHINGTON –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced today that U.S. Army Air Forces Technician 4th Grade William P. Butler, 22, who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for Dec. 22, 2025.
In late 1941, Butler was a member of 5th Air Corps Squadron, Weather (Regional Control), 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. Butler 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, Butler died Dec. 27, 1942, and was buried along with other deceased prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 837.
This is an initial release. The complete accounting of Butler’s case will be published once his family receives a full briefing.
For additional information on the War 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 Butler’s initial ID announcement here: https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000XfLaEAK.