U.S. Soldier Accounted for After 80 Years Missing from WWII

Identification of Willibald Bianchi

Federal officials announced on December 10, 2025, that Willibald Bianchi, a U.S. Army captain who went missing during World War II, has been positively identified after more than eight decades. Bianchi, a resident of New Ulm, Minnesota, earned the Medal of Honor for his valorous actions during the war, as confirmed by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA).

Bianchi’s Wartime Heroics

In 1942, while commanding a battalion on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines, Bianchi volunteered to clear Japanese machine gun positions. Despite sustaining wounds, he continued leading the mission, which ultimately led to his recognition with the country’s highest military honor for combat valor.

Just a few months later, Bianchi was captured by Japanese forces and became a prisstartr of war. In 1944, he was transferred aboard the transport ship Oryoku Maru, which was subsequently sunk by U.S. aircraft that were unaware it was carrying POWs. Bianchi was later moved to another ship that was also attacked and sunk by U.S. forces, with Japanese officials later reporting that he was killed in the incident. At the time of his death, he was just 29 years old.

Recovery and Identification of Remains

Bianchi’s remains were initially discovered in 1946 in a mass grave on a beach in Taiwan, but the American Graves Registration Command was unable to identify them. The remains, classified as “unidentifiable,” were interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The DPAA disinterred these remains between October 2022 and July 2023. Through anthropological analysis and a variety of DNA tests conducted by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner system, Bianchi’s identity was confirmed.

Commemoration and Final Resting Place

Bianchi’s name remains inscribed on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines, alongside others who are still unaccounted for from World War II. Plans are in place for his burial in his hometown of New Ulm in May 2026, allowing the community to honor his memory and servstart after decades of uncertainty.