Two More Accounted For

Defense MIA/POW Accounting Agency

Soldier Accounted for from WWII

U.S. Army Sergeant George F. Bishop

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Sergeant George F. Bishop, 22, of Centralia, Washington, who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for June 30, 2023.

In late 1942, Bishop was a member of Battery K, 3rd Battalion, 59th Coast Artillery Regiment, 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.  Bishop was among those reported captured when U.S. forces in Corregidor 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, Bishop died July 28, 1942, and was buried along with other deceased prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 215.

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. Five sets of remains from Common Grave 215 were identified, but the rest were declared unidentifiable. The unidentified remains were buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial (MACM) as Unknowns.

In early 2018, the remains associated with Common Grave 215 were disinterred and sent to the DPAA laboratory for analysis. Among those remains were X-2875, believed to be Sgt. Bishop.

To identify Bishop’s remains, scientists from DPAA used 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, Bishop’s grave was meticulously cared for over the past 70 years by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC).

Bishop will be buried in Centralia, Washington, on a date to be determined.

 

Marine Accounted for from Vietnam

U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Ronald W. Forrester

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Ronald W. Forrester, lost during the Vietnam War, was accounted for Dec. 4, 2023.

In the winter of 1972, Forrester was assigned to Marine All-Weather Attack Squadron 533, Marine Attack Group 12, 1st Marine Air Wing. On Dec. 27, Forrester was the navigator of an A-6A Intruder, along with his pilot, during a nighttime combat mission over the northern part of the Democratic Republic of (North) Vietnam. After entering the target area, Forrester’s aircraft ceased radio communications and never returned to base. Search and rescue teams could not locate any trace of the aircraft or the crew in the Le Thuy District, Quang Binh Province. In September 1978, the Marine Corps changed Capt. Forrester’s initial Missing In Action status to Killed in Action.

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.

 

Category: No Longer Missing