Bataan Missing

Grave of an unknown - ABMC Cemetery Manila Photo courtesy David L. Dwiggins

This site is dedicated to the thousands of American servicemen who were imprisoned and died of starvation, disease and mistreatment on the Bataan Death March and in Japanese prison camps in the Philippines during World War II.  They were abandoned by the US Government in 1942 and President Roosevelt succeeded in keeping their fate from the American people for more than a year.

After the war their remains were disinterred from the camp cemeteries and those who could be positively identified were returned to their families.  Identification required two items of evidence – camp burial records, dog tags and military dental records were used most often.  This was a massive job and they usually didn’t bother to obtain civilian dental records.

Those remains for which a second item of identification was not available were buried as unknowns in the Manila ABMC Cemetery; their families told only that the remains of their loved one were not recoverable.  The records were then classified and hidden from  public view for more than sixty years.  The headstones said they were known only to God – actually they were known to God and the US Army.

The Search for Bud

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During much of the existence of Camp Cabanatuan, all the men who died each day were buried in a single communal grave.  Those who died on 19 November 1942 were placed in grave number 717.

This information is taken from the camp death record and you might note that these men are numbers 2,267 through 2,280.  To put these numbers in context, Cabanatuan had been open approximately four or five months at this time.

Here’s what we know about each of them, Read more »

After reading the list of men buried in grave 717, I was reminded that it wasn’t “just” a list. These were young men who left their homes and families in the name of protecting our nation. The American government not only abandoned them, they attempted to hide what they had done from the public. These men endured some of the most brutal, horrific conditions and treatment ever inflicted on American military personnel. They died for America, and many would say they died because of America. Let’s not let them be forgotten.

So let me tell you about the guy who started this quest, my cousin Bud Kelder. His name was Arthur Herman Kelder, being named after his grandfathers, but he was always known as Bud or Buddy to the family.

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I’m slowly adding information to this site which others might find interesting and I’ve just posted a page of references and web links.  This page may be opened by clicking on the link in the upper right corner of the main page.

One file in particular is a must read for anyone interested in these POW camps or the men who perished in them.  It is ten pages prepared by DPMO Archival Research and is titled:
Casualties of the Philippines POW camps O’Donnell and Cabanatuan and the history of their burials

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Bud Kelder’s story was nicely told in this front page story in the San Antonio Express-News on Veterans’ Day 2010.

I can’t begin to count the many people who have helped us search for our ten Cabanatuan unknowns and to find their families.  Old friends and neighbors who have gone to considerable trouble to provide a family reference sample.  Librarians and historians who have kindly looked up information for us.  Genealogists who have pointed us in the right direction when we hit a wall.  The Department of Defense personnel who treat their work as much more than just a job.  The best part, of course, has been visiting with the families we have found – both from our family and the families of the other unknowns.  I can’t thank these people enough for the many courtesies and kindnesses they have extended, not just to me, but to all the families of the unknowns.

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Frank Schultz, a reporter for the Janesville (Wisconsin) Gazette, did a masterful job of telling the story of Lloyd Lobdell in this story which appeared on the front page of their print edition as well as being featured in their online edition.

Company A, 192nd Tank Battalion, was a National Guard unit from Janesville and the Janesville 99 he mentions are the 99 members – more than two-thirds of the company – who were imprisoned and died during WWII.

The feature story in the Memorial Day edition of the Port Clinton (Ohio) News Herald told of John Kovach, another member of the 192nd Tank Battalion who was buried in Cabanatuan grave 717.

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It often takes dozens, sometimes hundreds, of hours of searching to find a living family member of these men who died sixty-seven years ago.  So it was a wonderful experience for me yesterday when I was able to let a member of the Lobdell  family know what had become of their cousin, Lloyd J. Lobdell, and that his remains were resting safely in the Manila American Cemetery.  Thanks to Arlene and Richard Amon of Elkhorn, WI for taking time to talk to this nosy stranger.

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