WASHINGTON—The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced today that U.S. Army, Cpl. Richard A. Veal, 36, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for Sept. 29, 2025.
Veal's family recently received their full briefing on his identification, therefore, additional details on his identification can be shared.
Veal was a member of Battery C, 200th Coast Artillery Regiment, 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 POW camps. Veal 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, Veal died on Dec. 27, 1942, and was buried along with other deceased prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 837.
Following the war, American Graves Registration Service personnel exhumed those buried at the Cabanatuan cemetery and relocated the remains to a temporary U.S. military mausoleum near Manila. The AGRS recovered two sets of remains from Common Grave 837 but were unable to identify them. They were declared unidentifiable and buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial as Unknowns.
In December 2020, as part of the Cabanatuan Project, DPAA exhumed the remains associated with Common Grave 837 and sent them to the DPAA laboratory for analysis.
To identify Veal'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 as well as mitochondrial genome sequencing data and nuclear single nucleotide polymorphism testing.
Although interred as an Unknown in MACM, Veal's grave was meticulously cared for over the past 70 years by the American Battle Monuments Commission. Today, Veal 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.
Veal will be buried in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on April 24, 2026.
For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.
DPAA is grateful to the ABMC and the United States Army for their partnership in this mission.
For additional information on the War Department's mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving their country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil or on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa, https://www.linkedin.com/company/dodpaa, https://www.instagram.com/dodpaa/ , or https://x.com/dodpaa.
Veal's personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000001mtM4QEAU.
Veal's initial ID announcement can be read at https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/ID-Announcements/Article/4322552/soldier-accounted-for-from-world-war-ii-veal-r/.
