The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Pfc. Richard G. Pitsor, 18, of Fort Bayard, New Mexico, who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for March 20, 2023.

In late 1941, Pitsor was a member of G Company of the 200th Coast Artillery Regiment, 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.  Pitsor 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, Pitsor died Aug. 28,1942, and was buried along with other deceased prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 305.  

Graveside Funeral Services will be held at Eleven o’clock in the morning on Friday, April 26, 2024 at Fort Bayard National Cemetery.  Full Military Honors will be accorded by the United States Army as well as other veterans organizations.

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