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

FORT KNOX, Ky. – The remains of U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Carl F. Abbott, 35, of Salinas, California, who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was interred May 22 at Garden of Memories Memorial Park in his hometown.

In late 1941, Abbott was a member of Company C, 194th Tank Battalion, when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands in December. 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. Abbott 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. More than 2,500 POWs perished in this camp during the war.

According to prison camp and other historical records, Abbott died Oct. 3, 1942, and was buried along with other deceased prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 504.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency accounted for Abbott on Jan. , 2026.
For more information on DPAA’s efforts to locate and identify Abbott, please visit: https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/ID-Announcements/Article/4499484/soldier-accounted-for-from-world-war-ii-abbott-c/

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.

Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency profile for Staff Sgt. Carl F. Abbott

On Jan. 5, 2026, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Carl F. Abbott, missing from World War II. 

Abbott entered the Army from California and served with Company C of the 194th Tank Battalion, which was stationed in the Philippines during World War II. He was captured following the American surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on April 9, 1942, and forced on the Bataan Death March. He was ultimately interned in the notorious Cabanatuan Prison Camp in Nueva Ecija Province, where he died on Oct. 3, 1942. At its peak, Cabanatuan held approximately 8,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war who were captured during and after the Fall of Bataan. Conditions at the camp were poor, with food and water extremely limited, leading to widespread malnutrition and outbreaks of malaria and dysentery. By the time the camp was liberated in early 1945, approximately 2,800 Americans had died at Cabanatuan. Abbott was buried at the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery along with other deceased American POWs. The American Graves Registration Service designated the grave used for service members who died on Oct. 3, 1942, as Common Grave 504. From that grave, they recovered seven sets of remains and made field identifications of four individuals based on the presence of identification tags. The remaining three sets of remains which could not be identified at the time, were buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial as Unknowns. In 2019, as part of the Cabanatuan Project, the unidentified remains associated with Common Grave 504 were disinterred and sent to the DPAA laboratory for scientific analysis. The laboratory analysis and total circumstantial evidence available identified one set of these unknown remains as those of Abbott. 

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