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

FORT KNOX, Ky. – The remains of U.S. Army Air Forces Cpl. Joseph A. L. Richer, 24, who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, will be interred June 15, in Omaha National Cemetery in Omaha, Nebraska. Services and interment will be coordinated by John A. Gentleman’s Funeral Home.

Richer was assigned to the Headquarters Squadron, Fifth Interceptor Command, 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. Richer was among those reported captured when U.S. forces on 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, Richer died on June 30, 1942, at the Tayabas Road work detail in the present-day province of Camarines Norte on the Philippine Island of Luzon and was buried in the Tayabas Road camp cemetery.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency accounted for Richer on Dec. 5, 2025.

For more information on DPAA’s efforts to locate and identify Risher, please visit: https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/ID-Announcements/Article/4432520/airman-accounted-for-from-world-war-ii-richer-j/

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 John A. Gentleman’s Funeral Home, 402-391-1664.

Airman Accounted For From World War II (Richer, J.)

DPAA Press Release, March 12, 2026

WASHINGTON  –  The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced today that U.S. Army Air Forces Cpl. Joseph A. L. Richer, 24, who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for Dec. 5, 2025.

Richer was assigned to the Headquarters Squadron, Fifth Interceptor Command, 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. Richer was among those reported captured when U.S. forces on 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, Richer died on June 30, 1942, at the Tayabas Road work detail in the present-day province of Camarines Norte on the Philippine Island of Luzon and was buried in the Tayabas Road camp cemetery.

This is an initial release. The complete accounting of Richer’s case will be published once the family receives their full briefing.

DPAA Service Member Profile

On Dec. 5, 2025, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified the remains of U.S. Army Air Forces Cpl. Joseph A. L. Richer, missing from World War II.

Richer entered the service from Maine and served with Headquarters Squadron, 5th Interceptor Command, in the Philippines during World War II. He was taken prisoner after the American surrender in April 1942 and was forced on the Bataan Death March to the Camp O’Donnell POW camp. While at Camp O’Donnell, Richer was assigned to a road construction detail along Tayabas Road, near Calauag, present-day Camarines Norte, arriving at the work site with nearly 300 other POWs on May 29. As work progressed, many of those working fell ill to malnutrition and disease. According to prison camp and other historical records, Richer died on June 30, 1942, and was buried in the Tayabas Road camp cemetery. In mid-July 1945, less than two months before the end of the war, an American Graves Registration Services team visited the site of the Tayabas Road camp cemetery and recovered what it believed were 40 sets of remains. Three months later AGRS personnel recovered 15 more sets of remains from the site and in 1948, a final AGRS search of the province, including the camp cemetery, brought the total recovered remains from the site to 62. Those set of recovered remains which could not be identified at the time were buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial as Unknowns. In 2023 and 2024, DPAA exhumed the Unknowns associated with the Tayabas Road camp cemetery and sent them to the DPAA laboratory for analysis. Based on the laboratory analysis and total circumstantial evidence available, one previously unidentified set of remains was found to be that of Richer.

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