World War II soldier’s remains finally coming home to Washington County
Marie Johnson holds a photo of her uncle, Pfc. James W. White, who was killed 77 years ago in Burma, now Myanmar, during World War II. (Photo by Jess Mancini)
Pfc. James W. White, who was killed on July 2, 1944, in Burma while serving with the U.S. Army 2nd Battalion 5307th Composite Unit, Merrill’s Marauders. His remains are being returned to Washington County after 77 years. (Photo Provided)
Marie Johnson holds a photo of her uncle, Pfc. James W. White, who was killed 77 years ago in Burma, now Myanmar, during World War II. (Photo by Jess Mancini)
Pfc. James W. White, who was killed on July 2, 1944, in Burma while serving with the U.S. Army 2nd Battalion 5307th Composite Unit, Merrill’s Marauders. His remains are being returned to Washington County after 77 years. (Photo Provided)
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POMEROY -- The remains of a soldier who fought with the legendary Merrill's Marauders in World War II will be returned to Washington County next month.
Pfc. James W. White was killed on July 2, 1944, in Burma, now Myanmar, during the Battle of Myitkyina. His remains, which were classified with others as unknown, were identified a year ago by DNA testing by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
"We never thought we would ever see the day they would find his body," said Marie Johnson, White's niece, who was four years younger than him.
"We played together and did all kinds of things together," Johnson said.
White served in the U.S. Army Company E, 2nd Battalion 5307th Composite Unit, nicknamed Merrill's Marauders after the commander, Brig. Gen. Frank Merrill, which fought behind Japanese enemy lines in the jungles of Burma. The all-volunteer force, created in 1943, was the subject of the 1962 movie "Merrill's Marauders" starring Jeff Chandler.
White was killed between Radhapu and Mankrin where the battalion's mission was to hold the airfield at Myitkyina. His remains were not recovered at the time, the medical examiner's report said.
The remains of servicemen killed in the battle were buried in at least eight temporary cemeteries and numerous isolated locations, the accounting agency said.
From a cemetery in Myitkyina, remains of servicemen were transferred to a military cemetery at Kalaikunda, India, then exhumed in 1947 and reburied at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Honolulu.
Designated Unknown X-52 Kalaikunda, White's remains were originally buried in the temporary Myitkyina cemetery with 104 other unknown remains of soldiers killed in the fighting from May to August 1944. In July 2018, the accounting agency disinterred the remains from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, according to the medical examiner's report from January 2020.
White was among 15 candidates for the identification of the remains, the medical examiner's report said.
The DNA used to match the remains was from Tommy White, the son of White's brother, Johnson said.
White will be buried June 12 beside his parents, niece and great-grand-niece in the family cemetery at Long Bottom, Johnson said.
The ceremony will include full military honors. A service will be held at the Ewing Schwarzel Funeral Home in Pomeroy, the details of which have yet to be determined.
"It's going to be top notch," said Johnson, the oldest living descendant.
While White's remains were identified a year ago, his return to Washington County was delayed because of the pandemic, Johnson said. He could have been buried at the national cemetery at Arlington, but it was more appropriate to bring him home, she said.
Nonetheless, her uncle's return to Washington County 77 years after his death is a cause of celebration, not mourning.
"I couldn't be more excited," Johnson said.
Jess Mancini can be reached at jmancini@newsandsentinel.com.