Source: Defense POW/MIA Agency / Defense POW/MIA Agency
PLYMOUTH, Ind. — A Hoosier solider who was captured during the Bataan Death March in 1942 has finally been identified.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency says United States Army Private David Whipple of Plymouth, was a member of the 27th Materiel Squadron, 20th Air Base Group during World War II.
The DPAA says Pvt. Whipple was a part of the Allied force fighting Japanese soldiers when they invaded the Philippine Islands.
Whipple was captured in Bataan and was put through what historians call the Bataan Death March, before being sent to the Cabanatuan Prisoner-of-War camp.
The death march was 65 miles of inhumane abuse, with some soldiers being killed before reaching a POW camp.
David Whipple died on July 26th, 1942, one of more than 2,500 POWs to die in the Cabanatuan camp during World War II. He was buried in a mass grave called Common Grave 225.
Scientists have spent the better part of 80 years attempting to identify several remains found from the camp. In 2018, several remains were moved to a lab in Hawaii, where Whipple was eventually identified through dental and anthropological analysis.
Private David Whipple will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery in the near future. He’s memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery.
Whipple was just 23 years old.