Kellett, Walter J.
Army Corporal

Walter J. Kellett from Michigan, Gogebic county.

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Sunday, July 19, 1942
Death details: On July 23, 2019, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Corporal Walter J. Kellett, missing from World War II. Corporal Kellett entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from Michigan and served in the 17th Pursuit Squadron, 24th Pursuit Group in the Philippines. CPL Kellet was captured following the fall of Bataan and he was interned at the Cabanatuan Prisoner of War Camp. CPL Kellet died of malaria and malnutrition at Cabanatuan on or about July 19, 1942, and he was buried in a grave along with other prisoners who died on the same date. His remains were recovered from the camp after the war, but they could not be individually identified at the time and were buried as unknowns at the Manila American Cemetery. In 2018, twenty-three unidentified sets of remains associated with a communal grave at Cabanatuan were disinterred from the Manila American Cemetery and brought to the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, Delaware, where scientists used modern forensic techniques and circumstantial evidence to individually identify CPL Kellett.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency