After 80 years, Boyertown Native William J. McMichael Is Laid To Rest with Military Honors

[Editor's note -- The Expression staff extends thanks to America's veterans for putting their lives on the line to help  preserve our freedoms. ]

by  The Expression Staff

After more than eight decades as one of America’s missing from World War II, Warrant Officer Junior Grade William J. McMichael, a Boyertown native, has finally been laid to rest with full military honors at Indiantown Gap National Cemetery, following the identification and return of his remains.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced that McMichael’s remains were formally identified April 3, 2025, following DNA analysis and forensic comparison with family reference samples. McMichael had been listed as missing after he was reported killed while a prisoner of war in January 1945. The DPAA’s official record details his service with the U.S. Army Air Forces, his capture after the fall of the Philippines, and the wartime circumstances that led to the loss of his remains.

McMichael, who entered service from Pennsylvania and was assigned to the Philippine Air Depot, was interned by Japanese forces and placed aboard the transport Oryoku Maru for movement to Japan. The ship was attacked by U.S. carrier-borne aircraft—unaware that Allied prisoners were aboard— and sank in Subic Bay. Survivors were later loaded on the Enoura Maru for movement to Formosa (today Taiwan). Japanese records later reported McMichael as killed on January 9, 1945, when the Enoura Maru was sunk.

After the war, U.S. recovery teams exhumed a mass grave near Takao (now Kaohsiung) and the unidentified remains were interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu as Unknowns, until modern identification efforts could be completed.

“The search for answers as to the location and cause of death of U.S. Army Air Forces Chief Warrant Officer William J. McMichael was begun by his wife almost immediately after she was informed of his Prisoner of War (POW) status during WWII,” said Berks County State Rep. David Maloney, who assisted the McMichael family in publicizing their decades-long quest for answers. 

Maloney noted that McMichael’s sister Audrey McMichael had been especially persistent in keeping her brother’s story alive. “Audrey McMichael shared with us the story of her brother, William McMichael, … and remained persistent in her wish that his remains could be identified,” Maloney told Berks County News.  

Family members and the Boyertown community celebrated the return of McMichael’s remains when he was escorted home to Pennsylvania. Local television coverage showed residents lining the streets in silent tribute as the hearse carrying the flag-draped casket passed through town.

“In April 2025, DNA testing was used to identify his remains, and after 80 years, he was finally brought home to his family,” reported 6abc Philadelphia during its broadcast of the homecoming.

At Indiantown Gap, graveside services and full military honors were conducted by the U.S. Air Force Honor Guard and the Pennsylvania National Guard. Photos and video released by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) captured the solemn ceremony, with pallbearers in dress uniforms folding the flag and presenting it to McMichael’s surviving relatives.

The identification and burial of McMichael is part of an ongoing Defense Department effort, led by the DPAA, to locate, identify, and return the remains of American service members missing from past conflicts. Advances in forensic DNA analysis, together with family-provided reference samples, allowed the agency to match remains that had been buried as unknowns to a named soldier for the first time.

For McMichael’s relatives and the Boyertown community, the ceremony and burial brought both grief and gratitude. Local leaders and veterans described it as a fitting conclusion to a story that had spanned generations — from wartime loss to homecoming and honor.

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