Holmes, Dwight M.
Army 2nd lieutenant

Dwight M. Holmes, age 27, from Seminole County Oklahoma.

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Tuesday, January 9, 1945
Death details: On June 24, 2025, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified the remains of U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Dwight M. Holmes, missing from World War II. Holmes entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from California and served with the 30th Bombardment Squadron, 19th Bombardment Group (Heavy), in the Philippines during World War II. He was captured by enemy forces during the Japanese invasion of the islands in April 1942 and was interned in the Philippines until Dec. 13, 1944, when Japanese forces in the Philippines began the transfer of 1,621 Allied prisoners of war to Japan aboard transport ships whose harsh conditions and extreme overcrowding led survivors to refer to them as “Hell Ships.” On Dec. 14, unaware of the POWs onboard, Allied aircraft attacked the first ship, the Oryoku Maru, in Subic Bay in the Philippines. Survivors of the bombing were put aboard two other ships, the Enoura Maru and the Brazil Maru, to continue on to Japan. During the journey, while anchored in Takao Harbor, Formosa, present-day Taiwan, the Enoura Maru was attacked by Allied aircraft. The Japanese government reported that Holmes died aboard the Enoura Maru on Jan. 9, 1945. Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration Command was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel. In May 1946, an American Graves Registration Command Search and Recovery Team exhumed a mass grave on a beach at Takao, Formosa, recovering 311 bodies. However, the remains could not be identified at the time and were buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu as Unknowns. Between October 2022 and July 2023, DPAA disinterred Unknowns from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific linked to the Enoura Maru. The remains were accessioned into the DPAA Laboratory for further study and scientific analysis. The laboratory analysis and the total circumstantial evidence available identified one set of the remains as those of Holmes.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency