WWII prisoner of war laid to rest more than 80 years after his death

MAYFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio (WOIO/Gray News) – A World War II United States Army veteran who was a prisoner of war was finally laid to rest on Saturday, Aug. 16.

The family of 2nd Lt. William Bucey said they last saw him at the age of 29.

Barbara Ingersoll, one of Bucey’s nieces, said she doesn’t remember Bucey all that well because of how young she was when she last saw him. However, she said she remembers he left his home in Ohio to go to Colorado to become a mine engineer.

“That was the main thing my dad told me, and how much trouble he and his brother got into when he was little,” she said.

In 1942, Bucey was deployed to Japan as a member of the 121st Infantry Regiment of the Philippine Army.

He was eventually captured by the Japanese and died as a prisoner of war on Oct. 31, 1944.

In 2019, his family received a request asking for a DNA sample with the hopes that he would be brought back home.

Another of Bucey’s nieces, Donna Wilk, said she gave the sample and was shocked by the current DNA technology.

“I was so amazed that they had found him,” Wilk said. “And that they were bringing him back”.

At Bucey’s funeral service, his family gathered together to honor a man who had given up his life for a cause greater than himself.

“It’s overwhelming to think they would come and take time out of their day to come when they’ve never met him,” Ingersoll said.

Bucey was honored with a proclamation and several ribbons, plaques and medals, including the Purple Heart.