Army Private William Calkins Remains Finally Come Home: Died 1942 Bataan Death March

The remains of U.S. Army Private William Calkins were identified after being exhumed along with other unknown soldiers buried at the ManilaPhoto byNational Archives

The remains of U.S. Army Private William Calkins were identified after being exhumed along with other unknown soldiers buried at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines, the Department of Defense said in a statement reported by Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Not much was known about U.S. Army Pvt. William E. Calkins, except that he survived the infamous Bataan Death March and died shortly afterwards in a prison camp.

The Department of Defense’s POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which recovers prisoners of war and people missing in action, has identified his remains from those of unknown soldiers buried at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.

Now his full story can be told, per Oregon Public Broadcasting. Calkins was from Washington County and he was 20 years of age when he found himself serving in the 31st Infantry Regiment in the Philippines.

In December 1941 he was in Bataan when Japanese forces invaded the islands and captured thousands of U.S. and Filipino troops, according to a Defense POW/MIA (Prisoner of War/Missing in Action) briefing. Calkins and an estimated 75,000 other soldiers were gathered together and forced to march 65 miles to various prison camps. It came to be known as the Bataan Death March and was characterized by severe physical abuse. Men who fell down or were caught on the ground were shot.

The department’s Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, tasked with recovering prisoners of war and service members missing in action, said Calkins was captured after U.S. troops in Bataan province surrendered to Japanese forces. After surviving the harrowing 65-mile Bataan Death March, he was held at Cabanatuan POW Camp #1, where records show he died Nov. 1, 1942, at the age of 20. He was buried with other prisoners in what was known as Common Grave 704.

After the war, his remains were exhumed from the camp and relocated to the Philippine capital, where they were buried as “unknowns” at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, the agency said. They remained unidentified until this year.

Following the war, American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) 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. Two of the sets of remains from Common Grave 704 were identified, while the remaining 8 were declared unidentifiable. The unidentified remains were buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial (MACM) as Unknowns.

In 2018, as part of the Cabanatuan Project, DPAA exhumed the remains associated with Common Grave 704 and sent them to the DPAA laboratory for analysis.

To identify Calkins’ 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) and Y chromosome DNA (Y-STR) analysis.

Although interred as an Unknown in MACM, Calkins’s grave was meticulously cared for over the past 70 years by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC). Today, Calkins 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.

Calkins will be buried in Hillsboro, Oregon, on Sept. 13, 2024.