Politics & Government
U.S. Army Air Corps Private Who Died In 1942 Death Camp Comes Home
U.S. Army Air Corps Pvt. Charles R. Powers was 18 when he died in July 1942. He is finally being laid to rest in his hometown of Riverside.
RIVERSIDE, CA — A soldier from Riverside who died after the Japanese invaded the Philippines in World War II will be formally laid to rest Thursday in his hometown — 82 years to the day of his death.
U.S. Army Air Corps Pvt. Charles R. Powers was 18 when he died in July 1942 on the island of Luzon.
His remains were repatriated on Tuesday, when they arrived at Ontario International Airport.
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He's due for interment at Riverside National Cemetery on Thursday. The military support organization Honoring Our Fallen is seeking a public show of support for the fallen soldier after his funeral cavalcade departs Evans-Brown Mortuary in Menifee at 12:15 p.m.
"We reach out to the community ... to ask for your support lining the route with flags to honor this hero," the nonprofit said.
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The procession will go northbound on Encanto Drive, turn westbound onto Ethanac Road, then head north on Interstate 215, exiting Van Buren Boulevard westbound and going into the cemetery parking lot via Harmon Street.
The burial service, which will be private, is slated for 12:30 p.m.
Powers was attached to the 28th Material Squadron, 20th Air Base Group at Nichols Field south of Manila when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor occurred on Dec. 7, 1941, followed immediately by a series of air assaults that largely decimated U.S. defense assets in the Philippines and led to the naval and ground invasion of the U.S.-held archipelago.
While what was left of American Army and Navy air forces retreated to the Dutch East Indies and Australia, ground personnel were left to try to fend off the Japanese invaders, culminating in the surrender of the Bataan peninsula in April 1942 and Corregidor weeks later.
Powers was among the tens of thousands of U.S. personnel subjected to the infamous "Bataan Death March" into captivity. At Cabanatuan Prisoner of War Camp, he was imprisoned and among over 2,500 men who died there. Camp records show he passed on July 18, 1942, thereafter buried in a local cemetery.
"Although interred as an 'Unknown' ... Powers' grave was meticulously cared for over the past 70 years by the American Battle Monuments Commission, along with others still missing from WW II," Honoring Our Fallen said.
His identity was ultimately confirmed, leading to arrangements for the repatriation of his remains.
More information is available at www.HonoringOurFallen.org.
