Pope County Arkansas

Fred J. Wallace from Arkansas, Pope county.

Service era: World War II
Military history: 808 Military Police Company

Date of death: Tuesday, June 2, 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. Technician Fifth Grade Fred J. Wallace, who entered the U.S. Army from Arkansas, served with the 808th Military Police Company and was stationed in the Philippines during the Japanese invasion. He died on June 2, 1942, at the Cabanatuan Prison Camp in Nueva Ecija Province and was buried by a fellow prisoner in an unmarked grave. However, efforts to recover and identify his remains after the war were unsuccessful. He remains unaccounted-for. Today, Technician Fifth Grade Wallace is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency