Gov. Beshear Recognizes Sacrifice of Kentucky Airman Who Died in World War II

Gov. Beshear Recognizes Sacrifice of Kentucky Airman Who Died in World War II

FRANKFORT, Ky. (Sept. 25, 2026) - Gov. Andy Beshear recognizes the sacrifice of an Army airman from Kentucky who died during World War II but who was not accounted for until Nov. 21, 2025, and whose family was only recently briefed on his identification.

U.S. Army Air Forces Pfc. Weber S. Underwood, 25, of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, was a member of 28th Materiel Squadron, 20th Air Base Group, when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands in December 1941. 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 prisoner of war camps. Underwood 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 #1. More than 2,500 POWs perished in this camp during the war.

According to prison camp and other historical records, Underwood died June 3, 1942, at the Tayabas Road work detail in the present-day province of Camarines Norte on the Philippine Island of Luzon and was buried in the Tayabas Road camp cemetery.

In mid-July 1945, less than two months before the end of the war, an American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) team visited the site of the Tayabas Road camp cemetery and recovered what it believed were 40 sets of remains. Three months after an initial recovery, AGRS personnel recovered 15 more sets of remains from the site. In 1948, a final AGRS search of the province, including the camp cemetery, yielded seven additional sets, bringing the total recovered remains from the site to 62. The unidentified remains, including one set designated X-3694 Manila #2, were buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial (MACM) as Unknowns.

In 2023 and 2024, as part of the Cabanatuan Project, the Defense POW/MIS Accounting Agency (DPAA) exhumed the Unknowns associated with the Tayabas Road camp cemetery from MACM, including X-3694 Manila #2, and sent them to the DPAA laboratory for analysis.

To identify Underwood'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 mitochondrial DNA analysis, mitochondrial genome sequence, and nuclear single nucleotide polymorphism DNA testing.

Although interred as an Unknown in MACM, Underwood's grave was meticulously cared for over the past 70 years by the American Battle Monuments Commission. Today, Underwood is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Underwood will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on Oct. 6, 2026. Gov. Beshear will order flags lowered to half-staff in honor of Underwood on the day of interment.

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