FORT KNOX, Ky. — The remains of a soldier killed during WWII will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery on Sept. 13. Funeral services for Army Sgt. John V. Phillips will be held after the burial at Wheatley Funeral Home in Alexandria, Virginia.
Phillips was a member of Headquarters Company, 31st Infantry Regiment during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines Islands in December 1941. This resulted in the continuation of intense fighting until the Bataan peninsula was surrendered in April 1942 followed by Corregidor Island in May that same year.
Phillips was one of the thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members captured and held captive at Prisoner of War (POW) camps, specifically the Cabanatuan POW camp.
According to the prison camp and historical records, Phillips died July 27, 1942, and was buried with other deceased prisoners in the Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 225. More than 2,500 POWs were killed in this camp during WWII.
After the war, the remains of those service members were exhumed and relocated to a temporary U.S. military mausoleum bear Manila. Due to technical restrictions of the time, all of the remains were buried as "unknowns" in the present-day Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.
In March 2018, the remains associated with Grave 225 were exhumed and sent to the Joint Base Pearl Harbor in Hawaii to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency lab for analysis.
Phillips was accounted for by the lab on December 11, 2019, using dental, anthropological, and mitochondrial DNA evidence.
Phillips is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines along with his fellow service members who went missing during WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name on the memorial to indicate he has been accounted for.
To learn more about the Department of Defense's mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving their county, Visit the DPAA website, Facebook, or call (703)-699-1420/1169.