NJ Soldier Killed In World War II Identified Decades Later

NEW JERSEY — The remains of a New Jersey soldier who died while fighting in World War II have been identified nearly 80 years after his death.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced last month that U.S. Army Pvt. Roman Cherubini, 22, of Bridgeton, was accounted for on Dec. 16, 2024.

Cherubini served with the 475th Infantry Regiment in the China-India-Burma Theater, according to the DPAA.

In May 1944, Cherubini was assigned to a battalion also known as “Merrill’s Marauders." After arriving at the captured airfield in Myitkyina, Burma, Cherubini’s battalion advanced south from the village of Mankrin on June 16 against heavily fortified Japanese positions north of Myitkyina.

Although the exact circumstances of his death were not recorded, the U.S. War Department declared Cherubini killed in action on June 16, 1944.

The remains of servicemen killed during the battle were buried in at least eight different temporary cemeteries and numerous isolated burial locations, according to the DPAA. Eventually, all known burials were concentrated into the U.S. Military Cemetery at Myitkyina, including remains that could not be identified.

In January and February 1946, the remains in Myitkyina were disinterred and transferred to the U.S. Military Cemetery at Kalaikunda, India. The remains were exhumed from the cemetery in India in 1947 and sent to a lab on Oahu for further analysis.

Despite the lab's effort, Cherubini's remains were not identified and he was buried as a World War II Unknown in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

In 2022, the DPAA disinterred Cherubini's remains and transferred them to an agency laboratory.

To identify Cherubini’s remains, scientists from the DPAA and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used dental, anthropological and mitochondrial DNA analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence.