The remains of an Iowa soldier who died in a Japanese prison camp have been identified.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified the remains as 22-year-old U.S. Army Air Force Tech-4 Lloyd Bruntmyer of Des Moines, Iowa. Bruntmyer was serving in the Phillippine Islands when the Japanese invaded in December of 1941. Bruntmyer was among those reported captured when U-S forces surrendered, and the Japanese forced them on the 65-mile Bataan Death March to a prison camp.
Records show Bruntmyer died November 1st, 1942, and was buried in the prison camp cemetery. His remains were later moved to Manilla in 1947. The remains were exhumed in 2018 and advanced techniques were used to eventually identify them. Brentmyer’s remains will be buried in San Diego, California, in November of 2025.