More than 80 years after his death in the Philippines, the body of Staff Sgt. David Emory Holeman is coming home.
Though Holeman has no connection to Independence, he will be afforded full military honors at his funeral in Independence on Saturday, June 2, at Mount Hope Cemetery, honoring the wishes of his family.
Holeman will rest beside the grave of his father, Albert Holeman, who died in 1957.
Holeman’s journey is one that befalls the numerous U.S. military heroes who died for their country in the early months of World War II.
Born and raised in LaHarpe, Holeman and thousands of other airmen attempted to defend the Philippines when the Japanese military invaded on Dec. 8, 1941 (the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor occurred on Dec. 7, 1941; simultaneously, the Japanese also raided Singapore, Hong Kong and the Philippine Islands on Dec. 8, 1941 due to the international date line that separate the western and eastern hemispheres).
Holeman was a member of the 17th Pursuit Squadron, 24th Pursuit Group at Nichols Field when the Japanese laid waste to most of the U.S. aircraft at that military base. Airmen like Holeman resorted to ground warfare, as they attempted to hold off the Japanese 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 prisoner of war camps. Holeman 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 the squalid camp, including Holeman.
According to prison camp and other historical records, Holeman died July 19, 1942, and was buried along with other deceased prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 312. Military records indicate he died of dysentery and malaria.
Following the war, American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) personnel exhumed those buried at the Cabanatuan Cemetery and relocated the remains to a temporary the U.S. military mausoleum near Manila. In 1947, the AGRS examined the remains in an attempt to identify them. Twelve sets of remains from Common Grave 312 were identified, but the rest were declared unidentifiable. The unidentified remains were buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial as Unknowns.
In early 2018, the remains associated with Common Grave 312 were disinterred and sent to the military forensics laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, for analysis.
To identify Holeman’s remains, scientists from Defense/POW-MIA Accounting Agency, or DPAA, used anthropological analysis as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA comparison with other family members to make positive identification of Holeman’s remains.
Although interred as an Unknown in MACM, Holeman’s grave was meticulously cared for over the past 70 years by the American Battle Monuments Commission.
And, almost 81 years after his death, Staff Sgt. David Emory Holeman’s flag-draped coffin will be flown from Honolulu to Tulsa and ultimately given an escort from the Tulsa International Airport to Independence.
“In a way, Uncle David has been home for a long time,” said Holeman’s niece, Cynthia Holeman, who resides in Tuscaloosa, Ala. “The recovery of his remains and his final burial will close a chapter for our family. I think it will bring closure.”
Cynthia Holeman was the next-of-kin whose DNA was used to make positive identification of Staff Sgt. Holeman’s remains. Although she was born five years after World War II ended, she holds a deep connection to the uncle she never knew.
