Gutierrez, Juan F.
Army Private 1st class

Juan F. Gutierrez from New Mexico, Santa Fe county.

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Thursday, November 19, 1942
Death details: On February 24, 2021, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Private First Class Juan F. Gutierrez, missing from World War II. Private First Class Gutierrez was a member of the 200th Coast Artillery Regiment of the U.S. Army. He served in the Philippines during the early months of WWII. After the fall of the Philippines to Japanese forces in spring of 1942, PFC Gutierrez was taken as a prisoner of war by the Japanese. He died of beriberi on November 19, 1942, at the Cabanatuan Prisoner of War Camp in northern Luzon, and was buried in a common grave at the camp cemetery. In January of 1946, this common grave was exhumed for possible identification. Ten sets of remains from this grave, including those of PFC Gutierrez, could not be identified at the time, and were buried as unknown remains at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial. In August 2014, the Department of Defense determined there was sufficient evidence to disinter and identify these ten unknown remains. One set of these remains were eventually identified as those of PFC Gutierrez as part of this effort.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency