WASHINGTON—The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced today that U.S. Army Pvt. Ben F. Leslie, 31, of Capitan, New Mexico, killed during World War II, was accounted for Feb. 14, 2025. 

Leslie's family recently received their full briefing on is identification, therefore, additional details on his identification can be shared. 

In April 1942, Leslie was assigned to Battery H, 200th Coast Artillery Regiment. He was held as a prisoner of war by the Empire of Japan in the Philippines from 1942 to 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. The Japanese government reported that Leslie died aboard the Enoura Maru on January 9, 1945. He was declared non-recoverable on March 22, 1949. 

Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel. In May 1946, AGRC Search and Recovery Team #9 exhumed a mass grave on a beach at Takao, Formosa, recovering 311 bodies, including those designated as X-574A Schofield Mausoleum #2. At the time, AGRC personnel could not identify the remains due to severe comingling and they were buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP), Honolulu. 

Between October 2022 and July 2023, DPAA disinterred Unknowns from the NMCP linked to the Enoura Maru, including X-574A. The remains were accessioned into the DPAA Laboratory for further analysis. 

To identify Leslie's remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial and nuclear DNA analysis. 

Leslie's name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at North Africa American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Tunis, Tunisia, along with the others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for. 

Leslie will be buried in White Oaks, New Mexico, in July 2025. 

For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490. 

For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil , find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa  or https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-pow-mia-accounting-agency.  

Leslie's personnel profile can be viewed at: Pvt. BEN F LESLIE - Service Member Profile 

Read Leslie's initial ID announcement here: Leslie.