Utah World Warfare II POW returned to household 81 years after his demise

SALT LAKE CITY — Eighty-one years after his demise, Utah World Warfare II POW Ballard Yeates has returned to Utah.

Yeates’ stays arrived at Salt Lake Metropolis Worldwide Airport Tuesday afternoon, to a few dozen members of the family and a full navy escort.

“Once I seemed on the casket and realized he was there inside touching distance, which we had by no means had him, it was an excellent second,” Nedra Yeates Tempo, a niece, mentioned.

Yeates, who grew up in Millville, Cache County, joined the Military Air Drive in 1941 and was despatched to the Philippines as a Technician fifth Grade. In 1942, when the U.S. surrendered the Bataan Peninsula, he was one in every of almost 75,000 Filipino and American troopers taken prisoner by the Japanese and was subjected to brutal therapy, together with the Bataan Loss of life March, which was a 65-mile march to the POW camps.

Yeates handed away within the Cabanatuan POW camp on July 29, 1942, resulting from illness, however his household wasn’t knowledgeable of his demise till two years later. Then in 1949, his household held a burial service in Millville, Utah.

“Now we have put flowers on a grave for 75 years,” Tempo mentioned.

In 2023, Tempo mentioned she acquired a name from the U.S. Military Repatriation Committee in Hawaii, informing her that Yeates’ stays had been positively recognized by the Protection POW/MIA Accounting Company. A DNA match was made because of a DNA pattern supplied by a member of the family.

“Once they referred to as and advised us that that they had recognized his stays, I shrieked into the cellphone, I cried rather a lot really, and everybody I referred to as had the identical response, unbelief,” she mentioned.

Tempo mentioned whereas she did not know her uncle personally, she knew his story and of his sacrifice. She mentioned most of the tales had been supplied by her father, who was additionally a POW. She mentioned having Yeates’ stays now accurately recognized and returned house brings her household a way of pleasure and closure.

“It was every thing we hoped it might be,” she mentioned. “One way or the other that household connection is at all times there, and it is even stronger. “

One other burial service for Yeates, with full navy honors, can be held Saturday on the Millville Metropolis Cemetery. Tempo mentioned will probably be one other alternative for the household to reconnect and honor the lifetime of a beautiful man.

“I have not seen a few of these individuals in 30-40 years, like Ballard his namesake is coming, we grew up and had a historical past, and we’re simply feeling the knitting once more of having the ability to be a part of collectively as a household,” Tempo mentioned.