Lost in 1942, WWII Soldier returns home to be buried in Omaha

FORT KNOX, Ky. – The remains of U.S. Army Air Forces Cpl. Joseph A. L. Richer, 24, who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, will be interred June 15, in Omaha National Cemetery in Omaha, Nebraska. Services and interment will be coordinated by John A. Gentleman’s Funeral Home.

Richer was assigned to the Headquarters Squadron, Fifth Interceptor Command, when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands in December 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 were captured and interned at POW camps. Richer was among those reported captured when U.S. forces on Bataan surrendered to the Japanese. They were subjected to the 65-mile Bataan Death March and then held at the Cabanatuan POW Camp #1. More than 2,500 POWs perished in this camp during the war.

According to prison camp and other historical records, Richer died on June 30, 1942, at the Tayabas Road work detail in the present-day province of Camarines Norte on the Philippine Island of Luzon and was buried in the Tayabas Road camp cemetery.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency accounted for Richer on Dec. 5, 2025.

For more information on DPAA’s efforts to locate and identify Risher, please visit: [https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/ID-Announcements/Article/4432520/airman-accounted-for-from-world-war-ii-richer-j/](https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/ID-Announcements/Article/4432520/airman-accounted-for-from-world-war-ii-richer-j/)

U.S. Army Human Resources Command’s Past Conflict Repatriations Branch plays a vital role in the process of identifying, locating and contacting subsequent generation family members of Soldiers missing or killed in action during WWII and the Korean War to positively identify previously undiscovered or unknown remains.

Media interested in covering and/or obtaining more information about the funeral and interment should contact John A. Gentleman’s Funeral Home, 402-391-1664.