By Daniela Vestal, U.S. Army Human Resources Command

FORT KNOX, Ky. – The remains of U.S. Army Air Forces Pvt. Bennett H. Waters, 26, of Blackshear, Georgia, killed during World War II, will be interred April 4, in his hometown. Funeral services and interment will be overseen by Pearson-Dial Funeral Home.

In 1942, Waters was assigned to 17th Bombardment Squadron, 27th Bombardment Group on the Bataan Peninsula, in the Philippines. He was captured on April 9 and held as a prisoner of war by the Empire of Japan in the Philippines until 1944 when the Japanese military moved POWs to Manila for transport to Japan aboard the transport ship Oryoku Maru. Unaware the allied POWs were on board, a U.S. carrier-borne aircraft attacked the Oryoku Maru, which eventually sank in Subic Bay. Waters was then transported to Takao, Formosa, known today as Taiwan, aboard the Enoura Maru. The Japanese reported that Waters died on Jan. 9, 1945, when U.S. forces attacked and sank the Enoura Maru.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency accounted for Watters on June 18, 2025.
For more information on DPAA’s efforts to locate and identify Watters, please visit: https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/ID-Announcements/Article/4281721/soldier-accounted-for-from-korean-war-patton-m/

U.S. Army Human Resources Command’s Past Conflict Repatriations Branch plays a vital role in the process of identifying, locating and contacting subsequent generation family members of Soldiers missing or killed in action during WWII and the Korean War to positively identify previously undiscovered or unknown remains.

Media interested in covering and/or obtaining more information about the funeral and interment should contact Pearson-Dial Funeral Home 912-449-6626.

On June 18, 2025, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified the remains of U.S. Army Air Forces Pvt. Bennett H. Waters, missing from World War II.

Waters entered in the U.S. Army Air Forces from Georgia and served in the 17th Bombardment Squadron, 27th Bombardment Group, in the Philippines during World War II. 

He was captured by enemy forces during the Japanese invasion of the islands in April 1942 and was interned in the Philippines until Dec. 13, 1944, when Japanese forces in the Philippines began the transfer of 1,621 Allied prisoners of war to Japan aboard transport ships whose harsh conditions and extreme overcrowding led survivors to refer to them as “Hell Ships.”

On Dec. 14, unaware of the POWs onboard, Allied aircraft attacked the first ship, the Oryoku Maru, in Subic Bay in the Philippines. Survivors of the bombing were put aboard two other ships, the Enoura Maru and the Brazil Maru, to continue on to Japan. During the journey, while anchored in Takao Harbor, Formosa, present-day Taiwan, the Enoura Maru was attacked by Allied aircraft. The Japanese government reported that Waters died aboard the Enoura Maru on Jan. 9, 1945.

Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration Command was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel. In May 1946, an American Graves Registration Command Search and Recovery Team exhumed a mass grave on a beach at Takao, Formosa, recovering 311 bodies. However, the remains could not be identified at the time and were buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu as Unknowns.

Between October 2022 and July 2023, DPAA disinterred Unknowns from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific linked to the Enoura Maru. The remains were accessioned into the DPAA Laboratory for further study and scientific analysis. The laboratory analysis and the total circumstantial evidence available identified one set of the remains as those of Waters.

He is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines.

If you are a family member of this serviceman, you may contact your casualty office representative to learn more about your service member.