Verhines, Jim W.
Army Technician sergeant

Jim W. Verhines from Chaves County Rosewell, New Mexico .

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Tuesday, April 24, 1945
Death details: On Feb. 24, 2026, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified the remains of U.S. Army Air Forces Tech. Sgt. Jim W. Verhines, missing from World War II. Verhines entered the service from Texas and served with the 458th Bombardment Squadron, 330th Bombardment Group. On April 13, 1945, he was the engineer on a B-29 Superfortress aircraft that took part in a combat mission against targets in Tokyo, Japan. During the mission, the aircraft was shot down. Verhines survived the crash but was captured and later imprisoned at the Tokyo Military Prison. He died on the night of May 25–26, 1945, when an air raid ignited a fire that burned much of Tokyo, including the Military Prison. Following the war, the American Graves Registration Service recovered 65 sets of remains from the prison but was unable to identify any as Verhines. Thirty-nine Unknowns associated with the Tokyo Military Prison were interred at Fort McKinley Cemetery, now the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, in Manila, the Philippines. In 2022, DPAA exhumed those 39 Unknowns for laboratory analysis. There, scientists used modern forensic techniques to identify Verhines.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Albuquerque Tribune (1945)