Public invited to World War II soldier’s burial in Bradley Saturday
Army Air Forces Pfc. Glenn A. Harris was buried along with other deceased prisoners in a common grave
Army Air Forces Pfc. Glenn A. Harris was buried along with other deceased prisoners in a common grave– The remains of U.S. Army Air Forces Pfc. Glenn A. Harris, a soldier killed during World War II, will be interred on Sept. 30 at Pleyto Cemetery, in Bradley, Calif. Kuehl-Nicolay Funeral Home, Paso Robles, California, will perform graveside services preceding the interment.
The order of the service will be:
- 9:30 – 10 a.m. – Public viewing
- 10:30 – 11 a.m. – Service performed
- 11 a.m. – Procession to Pleyto Cemetery in Bradley, California
- 12:30 p.m. – Burial with full military honors, including playing of TAPS, folding of flag, and 21-gun salute
A native of Monterey, California, Harris was a member of the 93rd Bombardment Squadron, 19th Bombardment Group, when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands in Dec. 1941. Intense fighting continued until the surrender of the Bataan peninsula on April 9, 1942, and of Corregidor Island on May 6, 1942.
Thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members, including Harris, were captured and interned at Prisoner of War camps when U.S. forces in Bataan fell to the Japanese. The men were subjected to the 65-mile Bataan Death March, then held at the Cabanatuan POW Camp No. 1, where more than 2,500 POWs perished during the war. According to prison camp and other historical records, Harris died July 26, 1942, and was buried along with other deceased prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 225. He was 26 years old.
Following the war, the American Graves Registration Service exhumed those buried at the Cabanatuan cemetery, relocating the remains to a temporary U.S. military mausoleum near Manila. In 1947, three sets of remains from Common Grave 225 were identified, the rest were declared unidentifiable and were buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial as unknowns.
In March 2018, those remains were disinterred by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency and sent to a DPAA laboratory for analysis. Harris was accounted for by the DPAA on July 7, 2023, after his remains were identified using circumstantial evidence as well as anthropological, mitochondrial DNA, Y-chromosome DNA, and autosomal DNA analysis.
Although interred as an unknown in MACM, Harris’ grave was meticulously cared for over the past 70 years by the American Battle Monuments Commission.
For additional information about Pfc. Harris, go to: https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/News-Releases/PressReleaseArticleView/Article/3517992/airman-accounted-for-from-wwii-harris-g/
To learn more about the Department of Defense’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving the country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, or www.facebook.com/dodpaa.
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