Carneal, William T.
Army Private 1st class

William T. Carneal, age 24, from Kentucky, McCracken county.

Parents: Mother died when he was 1; father died when he was 7

Service era: World War II
Schools: Health High (1939)

Date of death: Friday, July 7, 1944
Death details: On January 21, 2014, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC, now DPAA) identified the remains of Private First Class William T. Carneal, missing from World War II. Private First Class Carneal, who joined the U.S. Army in Kentucky, was a member of Company D, 105th Infantry Regiment, 27th Infantry Division. On July 7, 1944, his unit was fighting on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands when Japanese forces launched a massive banzai attack. PFC Carneal was killed by enemy fire as enemy forces broke through the American lines. The active battlefield prevented the recovery of his body at the time, and recovery efforts on Saipan conducted immediately after the war were unable to locate his remains. In 2013, a private archaeological company unearthed human remains while performing an excavation on the northern coastline of Saipan Island. U.S. analysts were able to successfully identify these remains as those of PFC Carneal.
Cemetery: Palestine United Methodist Church, West Paducah

Source: National Archives, Courier Journal, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, findagrave.com