Seattle soldier who died in World War II accounted for decades later

WASHINGTON — The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced Friday that a first-class United States Army private, who was captured and killed as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for in August.

According to a press release from the DPAA Friday, U.S. Army Pvt. 1st Class Gordon N. Larson, 22, of Seattle, was accounted for on Aug. 12.

Larson was a member of Battery B, 59th Coast Artillery Regiment, in 1942. Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands in December, and after fighting Bataan peninsula and Corregidor Island were surrendered. As a result, thousands of U.S. and Filipino army men were captured and forced into internment camps. Larson was among them.

Larson and others walked in the 65-mile Bataan Death March held at one of the camps, killing more than 2,500 men.

Larson died Nov. 14, 1942, and was buried in the camp cemetery, according to prison camp and other historical records.

The American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) found and exhumed his body after the war. His remains were temporarily relocated to a U.S. military mausoleum near Manila. Scientists from the DPAA used dental, anthropological analysis and circumstantial evidence to identify Larson’s remains. Also, the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis during the autopsy.

“Although interred as an Unknown in MACM, Larson’s grave was meticulously cared for over the past 70 years by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC). Today, Sgt. Larson is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines,” the press release said.

A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for, the press release said.

Larson’s funeral location and date have yet to be determined.

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