BY LOU WHEELAND

Special to The Press

After 80 years of not knowing his whereabouts, the remains of World War II Army Private Earl E.R. Seibert of Allentown were identified with the use of DNA provided by surviving family members.

Seibert was a soldier stationed in Bataan at the opening of the war.

His noncombat unit was tasked with building and repairing air strips where needed.

In late 1941, Seibert was a member of Headquarters Company, 803rd Engineer Battalion (Aviation), when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands in December.

According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, intense fighting continued until the surrender of the Bataan peninsula on April 9, 1942, and of Corregidor Island on May 6, 1942.

With the surrender of Bataan, American and Filipino soldiers and civilians and others were force-marched 65 miles to Cabanatuan POW Camp No. 1.

More than 2,500 POWs perished in this camp during the war.

Many were murdered by their Japanese guards along the way.

The Army had Seibert listed as Missing in Action for 18 months, as his family held out hope for his return, even holding a 24th birthday party for him at home.

At the end of the war, a mass grave dug for American service members was flooded and used by Filipinos as a rice paddy.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency states that according to prison camp and other historical records, Seibert died July 27, 1942, and was buried along with other deceased prisoners in local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 225.

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.

In 1947, the AGRS examined the remains in an attempt to identify them. Three of the sets of remains from Common Grave 225 were identified, but the rest were declared unidentifiable, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency states.

The unidentified remains were buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial as Unknowns.

In March 2018, the remains associated with Common Grave 225 were disinterred and sent to the DPAA laboratory for analysis.

Seibert’s niece, Ginnie-Lee Henry, pursued the return of his remains using the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced on Jan. 29 that Seibert, then 23, who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for on Aug. 10, 2023.

Her DNA and that of his younger brother, Kenneth Seibert, and cousin Howard Sweeney were used to identify Seibert’s remains.

In May 25, a formal military funeral for U.S. Army Private Earl E.R. Seibert, a victim of the Bataan Death March, was held at Jordan United Church of Christ South Whitehall. with the Rev. Dr. David Smith, serving as officiant.