An Oregonian soldier who was lost for more than eight decades has had his remains returned home after being recently identified during World War II.
According to information released by the Department of Defense this month, U.S. Army Pvt. William E. Calkins, who had survived the Bataan Death March earlier that year, was captured by Japanese troops and died at the age of 20 in a prisoner of war camp in the Philippines in November 1942.
Along with other unidentified troops interred at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines, his bones were unearthed earlier this year and subsequently identified.
According to the Oregon Military Department, Calkins’ remains were flown into Portland International Airport on Friday and given planeside honors before being returned to his relatives in Oregon.
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When the Department of Defense’s POW/MIA Accounting Agency transferred the remains of the unidentified servicemen connected to Common Grave 704 to a lab for DNA testing in 2018, the search for their identities got underway.
The remains were removed from the camp immediately during the war, along with the remains of the other troops who were unidentified, and were kept in the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippine capital as “unknown.” At the Walls of the Missing in the cemetery, a rosette will be positioned next to his name.
Calkins’ last resting place will be Fir Lawn Memorial Park in Hillsboro on September 13 at noon.
