Charles DeHaven Powell Jr.

Private, U.S. Army

Service Number: 18050404

Unit: 31st Infantry Regiment, Philippine Division

Entered the service from: New Jersey

Died: June 23, 1942 — Missing in Action or Buried at Sea

Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery, Manila, Philippines

Awards: Bronze Star

Private Charles DeHaven Powell Jr. was raised in Stratford, NJ, and lived at 311 Harvard Road. He enlisted in the United States Army in August 1941 under the name of Dehaven Powell. After basic training he was stationed in the Philippine Islands with the 31st Infantry Regiment.

On December 8, 1941, Japanese planes attacked U.S. military installations in the Philippines. After landing in northern and southern Luzon, the Japanese pushed rapidly toward Manila. The 31st Infantry covered the withdrawal of American and Philippine forces to the Bataan Peninsula. Despite starvation, disease, no supplies, obsolete weapons, and often inoperative ammunition, the peninsula’s defenders fought the Japanese to a standstill for four months. When Major General King announced he would surrender the Bataan Defense Force on April 9, 1942, the 31st Infantry buried its colors and the cherished Shanghai Bowl to keep them out of enemy hands. Roughly half of the 1,600 members of the 31st Infantry who surrendered at Bataan perished while prisoners of the Japanese.

Private Powell was reported as missing in action in May 1942, according to the April 30, 1944 edition of the Camden Courier-Post, which stated that he was 24 at the time he went missing. As news of his fate was withheld by the Japanese, he was the recipient of a $25.00 War Bond from the Stratford Center Service Club in August 1943. Charles DeHaven Powell Jr. died while a prisoner of the Japanese at the Cabanatuan Prisoner of War Camp on June 23, 1942. His body was never identified, and he is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery, Manila, Philippines.

Thanks to Fred Baldassarre of “The Battling Bastards of Bataan” who supplied much of the above information concerning Private Powell’s whereabouts and the conditions he endured.

Source: American Battle Monuments Commission