A Detroit soldier who was captured and died as a prisoner of war (POW) during World War II has been identified and recovered.
U.S. Army Pvt. Kenneth L. Kramer, 20, of Detroit, was a member of 19th Air Base Squadron, 20th Air Base Group, when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands in 1942. Intense fighting continued until the surrender of the Bataan peninsula in April 1942 and of Corregidor Island in May 1942.
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The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members were captured and interned at POW camps. Kramer was among those captured when U.S. forces in Bataan surrendered to the Japanese.
According to the agency, they were subjected to the 65-mile Bataan Death March and then held at the Cabanatuan POW camp. More than 2,500 POWs died in this camp during the war.
Kramer died on June 29, 1942, according to prison camp and other historical records. He was buried along with other deceased prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 407.
After the war, 25 sets of remains buried in Common Grave 407 were recovered by American Graves Registration Service personnel. Nine of the remains recovered were unable to be identified and were taken to the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial to be buried as Unknowns.
The remains associated with Common Grave 407 were disinterred in November 2019 as part of DPAA’s Cabanatuan Project and were sent to the DPAA laboratory for analysis.
After scientists from DPAA used dental, anthropological and isotope analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence, they were able to positively identify Kramer’s remains. Scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA analysis, as well as mitochondrial genome sequencing data and nuclear single nucleotide polymorphism testing, to help positively identify Kramer.
Kramer will be buried in Holly in October 2025.