Harry Barwick from Highlands County Florida.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Monday, April 1, 1946
Death details: Finding of death; missing in action or buried at sea
Cemetery: Tablets of the Missing at Manila American
Source: National Archives, American Battle Monuments Commission, Defense POW/MIA Accunting Agency
Ben H. Ashing from Humboldt County California.
Parents: A. P. Sullivan
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Tuesday, July 28, 1942
Death details: Died in the Phillippine Islands while in Japanese custody.
Cemetery: Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery
Source: National Archives, American Battle Monuments Commission, Defense POW/MIA Accunting Agency, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Progress Bulletin (1945)
Byron Franklin Jr. Beard from Norfolk, Virginia .
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Wednesday, July 22, 1942
Death details: Died non-battle; missing in action or buried at sea; Tayabas, Philippine Islands
Cemetery: Tablets of the Missing at Manila American
Source: National Archives, American Battle Monuments Commission, Defense POW/MIA Accunting Agency; Virginia Military Dead database
Martin Arlin from Wayne County Michigan.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Wednesday, July 15, 1942
Death details: Died, non-battle; missing in action or buried at sea
Cemetery: Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery
Source: National Archives, American Battle Monuments Commission, Defense POW/MIA Accunting Agency
Orland Anderson from Washington County Charleroi, Pennsylvania .
Parents: Ora Anderson
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Saturday, July 11, 1942
Death details: Died in the custody of the Japanese
Cemetery: Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery
Source: National Archives, American Battle Monuments Commission, Defense POW/MIA Accunting Agency, Daily Herald (1942)
Merlyn K. Eby, age 19, from Deschutes County Bend, Oregon .
Parents: Mr. and Mrs. Vern Klum
Service era: World War II
Schools: Bend High (1942)
Date of death: Saturday, July 11, 1942
Death details: On May 21, 1942, Japanese guards conscripted (a forced enlistment) American prisoners of war (POWs) from the Camp O’Donnell POW camp for a road construction detail along Tayabas Road, near Calauag, Philippines. During the journey to their work site, the group stopped at the Pasay Elementary School, which was being used as a POW holding camp, to replace several unfit Camp O’Donnell prisoners on the project with newly-captured POWs from Corregidor. The number of prisoners exchanged is unknown, but the work detail arrived at the Tayabas Road site on May 29. Nearly three hundred POWs began road construction along the Basiad River to connect Route 1G (Old Tayabas Road) with a highway running north from Legazpi on the Bicol Peninsula. As work progressed, many POWs fell ill to malnutrition and disease. Over the next two months, Japanese guards sent the sickest prisoners 175 miles north to Bilibid Prison in Manila, though the number and identity of the POWs sent to Bilibid are unknown. The Japanese guards closed the project by late July when most prisoners became too sick or weak to work. Any surviving POWs were sent to Bilibid, while those who died while working on the project were buried either at the work site, at Bilibid Prison, or at other locations along the way. Private Merlyn K. Eby, who entered the U.S. Army Air Forces in Oregon, served with the 409th Signal Company (Aviation), in the Philippines during World War II. He was taken prisoner after the American surrender on April 9, 1942, and was forced on the Bataan Death March to Camp O’Donnell in Tarlac Province. While at Camp O’Donnell, Private Eby was assigned to the labor crew working on the Tayabas Road project. While working on this construction detail, he died from bronchial pneumonia on July 11, 1942. He was reportedly buried with a group of POWs northwest of a bridge and close to a river bank; however, he was not identified among remains recovered from the area after the war. He is still unaccounted-for. Today, Private Eby is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, The bulletin (1942)
Carrol J. Arrington from Wood County Texas.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Tuesday, June 30, 1942
Death details: On May 21, 1942, Japanese guards conscripted (a forced enlistment) American prisoners of war (POWs) from the Camp O’Donnell POW camp for a road construction detail along Tayabas Road, near Calauag, Philippines. During the journey to their work site, the group stopped at the Pasay Elementary School, which was being used as a POW holding camp, to replace several unfit Camp O’Donnell prisoners on the project with newly-captured POWs from Corregidor. The number of prisoners exchanged is unknown, but the work detail arrived at the Tayabas Road site on May 29. Nearly three hundred POWs began road construction along the Basiad River to connect Route 1G (Old Tayabas Road) with a highway running north from Legazpi on the Bicol Peninsula. As work progressed, many POWs fell ill to malnutrition and disease. Over the next two months, Japanese guards sent the sickest prisoners 175 miles north to Bilibid Prison in Manila, though the number and identity of the POWs sent to Bilibid are unknown. The Japanese guards closed the project by late July when most prisoners became too sick or weak to work. Any surviving POWs were sent to Bilibid, while those who died while working on the project were buried either at the work site, at Bilibid Prison, or at other locations along the way. Private Carrol J. Arrington, who entered the U.S. Army from Texas, served with the Quartermaster Corps in the Philippines during World War II. He was taken prisoner after the American surrender in April 1942 and was forced on the Bataan Death March to Camp O’Donnell in the Tarlac Province. While at Camp O’Donnell, Private Arrington was assigned to the labor crew working on the Tayabas Road project. While working on the labor detail, he reportedly died from malaria, dysentery, and anemia on June 30, 1942. He was reportedly buried with other POWs near Tayabas Road; however, he was not identified among remains recovered from the area after the war. He is still unaccounted-for. Today, Private Arrington is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Cemetery: Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery
Source: National Archives, American Battle Monuments Commission, Defense POW/MIA Accunting Agency
Weber S. Underwood from Union County New Jersey.
Service era: World War II
Military history: 28 Materials Squadron 20 Air Base Group
Date of death: Tuesday, June 30, 1942
Death details: On Nov. 21, 2025, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Pfc. Weber S. Underwood, missing from World War II. Underwood entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from New Jersey and served with the 28th Materials Squadron, 20th Air Base Group in the Philippines during World War II. He was taken prisoner after the American surrender in April 1942 and was forced on the Bataan Death March to the Camp O’Donnell POW camp. While at Camp O’Donnell, Underwood was assigned to a road construction detail along Tayabas Road, near Calauag (present-day Camarines Norte province), arriving at the work site with nearly three hundred other POWs on May 29. As work progressed, many of those working fell ill to malnutrition and disease. According to prison camp and other historical records, Underwood died on June 30, 1942, and was buried in the Tayabas Road camp cemetery. In mid-July 1945, less than two months before the end of the war, an American Graves Registration Services (ARGS) team visited the site of the Tayabas Road camp cemetery and recovered what it believed were 40 sets of remains. Three months later AGRS personnel recovered 15 more sets of remains from the site and in 1948, a final AGRS search of the province, including the camp cemetery, brought the total recovered remains from the site to 62. Those set of recovered remains which could not be identified at the time were buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial (MACM) as Unknowns. In 2023 and 2024, DPAA exhumed the Unknowns associated with the Tayabas Road camp cemetery and sent them to the DPAA laboratory for analysis. Based on the laboratory analysis and total circumstantial evidence available, one previously unidentified set of remains was found to be that of Underwood.
Source: Defense POW/Mia Accounting Agency
Perley Gebo from Worcester County Massachusetts.
Parents: Frederick M. Gebo
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Friday, June 19, 1942
Death details: On May 21, 1942, Japanese guards conscripted (a forced enlistment) American prisoners of war (POWs) from the Camp O’Donnell POW camp for a road construction detail along Tayabas Road, near Calauag, Philippines. During the journey to their work site, the group stopped at the Pasay Elementary School, which was being used as a POW holding camp, to replace several unfit Camp O’Donnell prisoners on the project with newly-captured POWs from Corregidor. The number of prisoners exchanged is unknown, but the work detail arrived at the Tayabas Road site on May 29. Nearly three hundred POWs began road construction along the Basiad River to connect Route 1G (Old Tayabas Road) with a highway running north from Legazpi on the Bicol Peninsula. As work progressed, many POWs fell ill to malnutrition and disease. Over the next two months, Japanese guards sent the sickest prisoners 175 miles north to Bilibid Prison in Manila, though the number and identity of the POWs sent to Bilibid are unknown. The Japanese guards closed the project by late July when most prisoners became too sick or weak to work. Any surviving POWs were sent to Bilibid, while those who died while working on the project were buried either at the work site, at Bilibid Prison, or at other locations along the way. Corporal Perley Gebo, who entered the U.S. Army from Massachusetts, served with Headquarters Squadron, 24th Pursuit Group, in the Philippines during World War II. He was taken prisoner after the American surrender on April 9, 1942, and was forced on the Bataan Death March to Camp O’Donnell in Tarlac Province. While at Camp O’Donnell, CPL Gebo was assigned to the labor crew working on the Tayabas Road project. While working on this construction detail, he died from malaria and dysentery in the vicinity of Basiad on June 19, 1942. He was reportedly buried with a group of other POWs near Tayabas Road; however, he was not identified among remains recovered from the area after the war. He is still unaccounted-for. Today, Corporal Gebo is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Fitchburg Sentinel (1945)
Lloyd W. Irvine from Carbon County Red Lodge, Montana .
Parents: Thomas Irvine
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Monday, June 15, 1942
Death details: On May 21, 1942, Japanese guards conscripted (a forced enlistment) American prisoners of war (POWs) from the Camp O’Donnell POW camp for a road construction detail along Tayabas Road, near Calauag, Philippines. During the journey to their work site, the group stopped at the Pasay Elementary School, which was being used as a POW holding camp, to replace several unfit Camp O’Donnell prisoners on the project with newly-captured POWs from Corregidor. The number of prisoners exchanged is unknown, but the work detail arrived at the Tayabas Road site on May 29. Nearly three hundred POWs began road construction along the Basiad River to connect Route 1G (Old Tayabas Road) with a highway running north from Legazpi on the Bicol Peninsula. As work progressed, many POWs fell ill to malnutrition and disease. Over the next two months, Japanese guards sent the sickest prisoners 175 miles north to Bilibid Prison in Manila, though the number and identity of the POWs sent to Bilibid are unknown. The Japanese guards closed the project by late July when most prisoners became too sick or weak to work. Any surviving POWs were sent to Bilibid, while those who died while working on the project were buried either at the work site, at Bilibid Prison, or at other locations along the way. Private First Class Lloyd W. Irvine, who entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from Montana, served with the 20th Pursuit Squadron, 24th Pursuit Group in the Philippines during World War II. He was taken prisoner after the American surrender in April 1942 and was forced on the Bataan Death March to Camp O’Donnell in Tarlac Province. While at Camp O’Donnell, PFC Irvine was assigned to the labor crew working on the Tayabas Road project. While working on the labor detail, he reportedly died from malaria, dysentery, and anemia on June 15, 1942. He was buried with other POWs near Tayabas Road; however, he was not identified among remains recovered from the area after the war. He is still unaccounted-for. Today, Private First Class Irvine is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Bridger Times (1945)