Colorado POW’s remains identified after 82 years: Clifford H. Strickland finally accounted for
(FLORENCE, Colo.) — The remains of a Colorado prisoner of war have been positively identified after 82 years. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced on Wednesday, Feb. 28 that U.S. Army Technician Fifth Grade Clifford H. Strickland of Fowler, Colorado, age 25 at the time of his death, has been accounted for.
Strickland was reported captured in the spring of 1942 in the Philippine Islands when U.S. forces in Bataan surrendered to the Japanese. He was one of thousands of other U.S. and Filipino service members to be captured and interned at POW camps during the war.
Prison camp records confirm that Strickland died in July of 1942, and was buried—along with other prisoners who died in the camp—at Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in a common grave. After the war, the American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) exhumed those buried at the Cabanatuan cemetery and brought the remains to a U.S. military mausoleum near Manila.
The AGRS attempted to identify the remains, but seven of the bodies remained unidentified, including the body of Tec 5 Strickland. They were buried at Manila American Cemetery (MACM) as Unknowns.
In early 2018, the remains of the seven unknown soldiers were disinterred and sent to the DPAA lab to be analyzed. Through dental, anthropological, and circumstantial evidence, including DNA analysis, Tec 5 Strickland was finally identified as one of the unknown soldiers. Strickland’s personnel file now shows that he has been accounted for.
He will be buried in Florence, Colorado, on June 29, 2024.
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