On July 16, 1942 United States Army Sgt. Charles E. Young Jr. died in a prisoner-of-war camp in the Philippines.
Now82 years later, his body has been returned to Southern California to be buried.
His remains arrived at Ontario International Airport earlier Friday afternoon before being transported to Evans-Brown Mortuary in Menifee.
Young had been previously buried in Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 316 in the Philippines.
The Defense POW Accounting Agency exhumed that grave in 2018 and identified Young’s remains.
Young served in the 429th Signal Maintenance Company.
In 1942, the United States surrendered control of the Bataan peninsula and Corregidor Island, located in the Philippines, to the Japanese.
Over 2,500 American and Filipino soldiers who were captured and interned in POW camps died and were placed in mass graves.