U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Alvin R. Scarborough and Army Pfc. Joseph R. Travers. (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency)
The remains of two soldiers, killed decades ago, will be interred with full military honors this week.
•The remains of U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Alvin R. Scarborough, who died a prisoner of war during World War II, will be interred Saturday at Corinth Baptist Church Cemetery in Carthage, Miss.
•The remains of Army Pfc. Joseph R. Travers, who died a prisoner of war during the Korean War, will be interred Saturday at Cedar Knoll Cemetery in Taunton, Mass.
Scarborough, a native of Dossville, Miss., was a member of 454th Ordnance Company (Aviation), when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands in December 1941. He was among thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members who were captured, subjected to the 65-mile Bataan Death March and interned at POW camps. He died a prisoner of war July 28, 1942, at age 22.
Scarborough was accounted for by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency Sept. 21, 2023, after his remains exhumed in 2018 from the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Philippines, for laboratory analysis and identification.
Travers, a native of Taunton, was a member of Dog Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action April 22, 1951, after his unit engaged enemy forces near the village of Undam-Jang, Republic of Korea Nov. 30, following the Battle of Ch’ongch’on. Travers reportedly died a prisoner of war December 1951 at age 24.
He was accounted for by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency June 20, 2024, after his remains were exhumed in August 2019 from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific — also known as the Punchbowl — in Honolulu for laboratory analysis and identification.