Lost in 1941, WWII Soldier Returns Home to Virginia for Final Rest

FORT KNOX, Ky. – The remains of U.S. Army Cpl. Byron F. Beard, Jr., 23, who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, will be interred Nov. 11 at Holston View Cemetery in Weber City, near his hometown of Fort Blackmore, Virginia. Services and interment are being coordinated by Fischer Funeral Services 276-594-1874.

In 1941, Beard was a member of 409th Signal Company, Aviation, when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands in December. Intense fighting continued 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 POW camps.Beard 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 #1. More than 2,500 POWs perished in this camp during the war.

According to prison camp and other historical records, Beard died July 22, 1942, at the Tayabas Road work detail in the present-day province of Camarines Norte on the Philippine Island of Luzon and was buried in the Tayabas Road camp cemetery.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency accounted for Beard on Jan. 13, 2026.

For more information on DPAA’s efforts to locate and identify Pierce, please visit: [https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/ID-Announcements/Article/4384157/soldier-accounted-for-from-world-war-ii-beard-jr-b/](https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/ID-Announcements/Article/4384157/soldier-accounted-for-from-world-war-ii-beard-jr-b/)

U.S. Army Human Resources Command’s Past Conflict Repatriations Branch plays a vital role in the process of identifying, locating and contacting subsequent generation family members of Soldiers missing or killed in action during WWII and the Korean War to positively identify previously undiscovered or unknown remains.

Media interested in covering and/or obtaining more information about the funeral and interment should contact Fischer Funeral Services, 276-594-1874.

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