Press Release | March 28, 2025

Airman Accounted For From WWII (Penny, B.)

WASHINGTON  –  

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced today that U.S. Army Air Forces Cpl. Bruce H. Penny, 21, who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for March 25, 2025.

In late 1941, Penny was a member of 31st Infantry Regiment, 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. Penny 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 this camp during the war.

According to prison camp and other historical records, Penny died on Nov. 22, 1942, and was buried along with other deceased prisoners in the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 807.

This is an initial release. The complete accounting of Penny’s case will be published once the family receives their full briefing.