FORT KNOX, KY – The remains of a soldier killed during World War II will be interred at Riverview Cemetery on August 14. Funeral services for Army Pvt. Wayne M. Evans will be performed by Daly Leach Memorial Chapel, Hamilton, preceding the interment.
A native of Hamilton, Evans was a member of Battery G, 59th Coast Artillery Regiment, when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands in December 1941. Intense fighting continued until the surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on April 9, 1942, and of the Corregidor Island on May 6, 1942.
Thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members, including Evans, were captured and interned at POW camps. According to historical records, Evans was held at the Cabanatuan POW camp where he died on July 19, 1942. He was just 21 years old. More than 2,500 POWs perished in this camp during the war. All, including Evans, were buried in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 312.
Following the war, those remains were exhumed and relocated to a temporary U.S. military mausoleum near Manila. In January 2018, remains associated with Common Grave 312 were disinterred and sent to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency’s laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, for analysis.
Evans was accounted for by the DPAA on March 30, 2020, after his remains were identified using circumstantial evidence, as well as anthropological and mitochondrial DNA analysis.
His name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines – an American Battle Monuments Commission site – along with others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
For additional information about Pvt. Evans, go to https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/Recent-News-Stories/Article/2138159/soldier-accounted-for-from-world-war-ii-evans-w/
To learn more about the Department of Defense’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, www.facebook.com/dodpaa, or call (703) 699-1420/1169.