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News Release

Press Release | Dec. 8, 2021

Soldier Accounted For From World War II (Mendonca, A.)

WASHINGTON  –   The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that Army Pfc. Anthony F. Mendonca, 28, of Waipahu, Hawaii, killed during World War II, was accounted for April 9, 2020.

In June 1944, Mendonca was a member of Company A, 106th Infantry Regiment, 27th Infantry Division, when American forces participated in the battle for Saipan, part of a larger operation to secure the Mariana Islands. Mendonca was killed during fighting on June 28. His remains were reportedly not recovered.

Remains identified as Unknown X-10 were first reported as buried in Army Cemetery #1 on Saipan July 10, 1944. The remains were disinterred sometime later and interred in the Fort William McKinley Cemetery, now the American Battle Monuments Commission’s (ABMC) Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, in the Philippines on Feb. 5, 1952.

After thorough historical research, it was determined that X-10 could likely be identified. On Jan. 20, 2019, Unknown X-10 was disinterred and sent to the DPAA Laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, for analysis.

To identify Mendonca’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 DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

Mendonca’s name is recorded on the ABMC’s Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP) in Honolulu, along with the others who are still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Mendonca will be buried Dec. 16, 2021, at the NMCP in Honolulu.

For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty office at (800) 892-2490.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, or find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-pow-mia-accounting-agency.

Mendonca’s personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000Xdt2EAC.