Remains of World War II Veteran Who Died in ‘Awful’ Prison Camp Will Finally Be Returned After 80 Years

The remains of a young World War II veteran who died more than 80 years ago are finally being returned home.

U.S. Army Pvt. Blanchard Pruitt of Florien, Louisiana, was 19 years old when he died in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in the Philippines on Jan. 1, 1943, according to a press release from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). His remains were identified in March and will be buried in Louisiana this September.

Blanchard was the second oldest of eight children. For decades, his family had been working to find out what happened to him, WLBT 5 reported.

“My grandparents didn’t know that he died. They knew he was missing and they knew he was captured, but they didn’t know he died for probably about eight or nine months. And then they got a letter,” his niece, Sherry, told the outlet.

“They’re all gone now,” she added about her uncle’s immediate relatives. “So, we’re [the younger generation] the ones that are going to get the closure on this finally.”

Sherry also said her uncle was only 17 when he enlisted in the U.S. Army.

“He probably just didn’t tell the truth about his age, because he went in before my dad, and my dad was older,” she said. “A lot of boys did that at that time. They would say, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m 18.’ You know they were desperate for soldiers.”

Blanchard was identified through a DNA sample provided by Sherry’s brother, Danny, at the request of her older sister, Sheila.

“That’s how they found his remains. They’re 100 percent sure that he is ours,” Sherry said.

The family is planning a wake before his burial. Blanchard will be laid to rest next to his mother.

“She always missed him […]. She knew he was in a very, very, very terrible place,” Sherry said, referring to the prison camp. “It was an awful place there.”

Blanchard was stationed in the Pacific and captured in 1942. He was one of more than 70,000 American and Filipino soldiers forced on the brutal 65-mile Bataan Death March before being held at a prison camp in Cabanatuan, a city in the Philippines.

His unidentified remains were buried in a cemetery in Manila, where they stayed for decades.