Evans, Wayne M.
Army Private 1st class

Wayne M. Evans, age 21, from Hamilton, Montana, Ravalli county.

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Sunday, July 19, 1942
Death details: On March 30, 2020, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Private First Class Wayne M. Evans, missing from World War II. Private First Class Evans entered the U.S. Army from Montana and was a member of the 59th Coast Artillery Regiment in the Philippines. He was captured by Japanese forces at Bataan following the American surrender in the Philippines on April 9, 1942. He was held at the Cabanatuan Prisoner of War Camp, where he died of dysentery on June 19, 1942. He was recorded as buried in Communal Grave 312 at the camp cemetery; however, recovery efforts at the camp immediately after the war failed to identify any remains as those of PFC Evans. In 2018, 22 unknown remains associated with Common Grave 312 were exhumed from the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines for possible identification. Laboratory analysis and circumstantial evidence allowed the DPAA to identify one set of these remains as those of PFC Evans.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency