Texas soldier accounted for from World War II

Yahoo

01-03-2025

Feb. 28—WASHINGTON — The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Friday that U.S. Army Cpl. Ernest H. Ulrich, 26, of China, Texas, who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for Oct. 9, 2024.
Ulrich's family recently received their full briefing on his identification, therefore, additional details on his identification can be shared, a news release said.
In late 1941, Ulrich was a member of Medical Department, 200th Coast Artillery Regiment in the Philippines during World War II, when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands in December. 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. Ulrich was among those reported captured when U.S. forces in Bataan surrendered to the Japanese. They were subjected to the 65-mile Bataan Death March and then held at the Cabanatuan POW camp. More than 2,500 POWs perished in this camp during the war.
According to prison camp and other historical records, Ulrich died Nov. 22, 1942, and was buried along with other deceased prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 807.
Following the war, American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) personnel exhumed those buried at the Cabanatuan cemetery and relocated the remains to a temporary U.S. military mausoleum near Manila. In 1947, the AGRS examined the remains in an attempt to identify them. Three sets of remains from Common Grave 807 were identified, but the rest were declared unidentifiable. The unidentified remains were buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial (MACM) as Unknowns.
In late 2018, DPAA exhumed the remains of nine Unknowns associated with Common Grave 807 and sent them to the DPAA laboratory for analysis.
To identify Ulrich's remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used Y-chromosome DNA analysis.
Although interred as an Unknown in MACM, Ulrich's grave was meticulously cared for over the past 70 years by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC).
Ulrich will be buried in Palo Alto, California, on a date to be determined.
For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at [phone].
DPAA is grateful to the ABMC and the United States Army for their partnership in this mission.
For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving their country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil or on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa, https://www.linkedin.com/company/dodpaa, https://www.instagram.com/dodpaa/, or https://x.com/dodpaa.
Read Ulrich's initial ID announcement here: Ulrich.