Reimer, John William Jr.
Navy Aviation chief metalsmith

John William Jr. Reimer from Havelock, Iowa, Pocahontas county.

Spouse: Lillan Mae Reimer

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Saturday, October 24, 1942
Death details: Following the Allied surrender on the Bataan Peninsula on April 9, 1942, the Japanese began the forcible transfer of American and Filipino prisoners of war to various prison camps in central Luzon, at the northern end of the Philippines. The largest of these camps was the notorious Cabanatuan Prison Camp. At its peak, Cabanatuan held approximately 8,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war that were captured during and after the Fall of Bataan. Camp overcrowding worsened with the arrival of Allied prisoners who had surrendered from Corregidor on May 6, 1942. Conditions at the camp were poor, with food and water extremely limited, leading to widespread malnutrition and outbreaks of malaria and dysentery. By the time the camp was liberated in early 1945, approximately 2,800 Americans had died at Cabanatuan. Prisoners were forced to bury the dead in makeshift communal graves, often completed without records or markers. As a result, identifying and recovering remains interred at Cabanatuan was difficult in the years after the war. Aviation Chief Machinist’s Mate John W. Reimer Jr. entered the U.S. Navy from California and served with Patrol Squadron 102, which was stationed in the Philippines during World War II. He was captured by Japanese forces and interned at the Cabanatuan Prison Camp, where he died of malaria on October 24, 1942. Death records maintained by other American prisoners at Cabanatuan contained no report on his burial location, and he could not be identified among the remains recovered from any of the Cabanatuan burial sites after the war. Today, Aviation Chief Machinist’s Mate Reimer is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency