VERO BEACH, Fla. — The remains of a soldier killed during World War II will be buried at Winter Beach Cemetery in Vero Beach, Florida, military officials said Thursday.
U.S. Army Pvt. Robert L. A. Hurst was accounted for by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency July 10, 2023, after his remains were identified using circumstantial evidence as well as dental, anthropological, mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome DNA analysis, the U. S. Army Human Resources Command Public Affairs Office said in a news release.
Hurst was a member of the 429th Signal Maintenance Company when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands in December 1941. He was among thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members captured and interned at POW camps when U.S. forces in Bataan fell to the Japanese. The men were subjected to the 65-mile Bataan Death March, then held at the Cabanatuan POW camp where more than 2,500 POWs died during the war, officials said.
According to historical records, Hurst was a native of Wabasso, Florida and died July 27, 1942 at age 21. He and other deceased prisoners were buried in Common Grave 225, Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery.
Following the war, the remains of personnel buried at Common Grave 225 were exhumed and eventually buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial as unknowns, then disinterred in 2018 for laboratory for analysis, according to military officials.
Hurst's remains will be buried Feb. 17 at Winter Beach Cemetery, officials said. Cox-Gifford Seawinds Funeral Home & Crematory will perform graveside services before the burial.