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Remains of World War II POW Who Died in the Philippines Returned Home

FILE: A member staff watches a digital display showcasing the identification photographs of British prisoners of war held abroad and foreign internees held in Britain, part of the Great Escapes: Remarkable Second World War Captives exhibition at the National Archives, in Kew, Richmond, England, Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024. A new exhibit that opened Friday Feb. 2, 2024 at The National Archives in London uses the 80th anniversary of the so- called Great Escape by allied airmen from a German prisoner of war camp to explore escapes by captives of all kinds during World War II. (Jonathan Brady/PA via AP)
FILE: A member staff watches a digital display showcasing the identification photographs of British prisoners of war held abroad and foreign internees held in Britain, part of the Great Escapes: Remarkable Second World War Captives exhibition at the National Archives, in Kew, Richmond, England, Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024. A new exhibit that opened Friday Feb. 2, 2024 at The National Archives in London uses the 80th anniversary of the so- called Great Escape by allied airmen from a German prisoner of war camp to explore escapes by captives of all kinds during World War II. (Jonathan Brady/PA via AP)
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Remains of World War II POW Who Died in the Philippines Returned Home

FILE: A member staff watches a digital display showcasing the identification photographs of British prisoners of war held abroad and foreign internees held in Britain, part of the Great Escapes: Remarkable Second World War Captives exhibition at the National Archives, in Kew, Richmond, England, Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024. A new exhibit that opened Friday Feb. 2, 2024 at The National Archives in London uses the 80th anniversary of the so- called Great Escape by allied airmen from a German prisoner of war camp to explore escapes by captives of all kinds during World War II. (Jonathan Brady/PA via AP)
FILE: A member staff watches a digital display showcasing the identification photographs of British prisoners of war held abroad and foreign internees held in Britain, part of the Great Escapes: Remarkable Second World War Captives exhibition at the National Archives, in Kew, Richmond, England, Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024. A new exhibit that opened Friday Feb. 2, 2024 at The National Archives in London uses the 80th anniversary of the so- called Great Escape by allied airmen from a German prisoner of war camp to explore escapes by captives of all kinds during World War II. (Jonathan Brady/PA via AP)

The long-unidentified remains of a World War II service member who died in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in the Philippines in 1942 were returned home to California on Tuesday.

The remains of US Army Air Forces Pvt. 1st Class Charles R. Powers, 18, of Riverside, were flown to Ontario International Airport east of Los Angeles for burial at Riverside National Cemetery on Thursday, 82 years to the day of his death.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced in June that Powers was accounted for on May 26, 2023, after analysis of his remains, including use of DNA, The AP reported.

Powers was a member of 28th Materiel Squadron, 20th Air Base Group, when Japanese forces invaded the Philippines in late 1941, leading to surrender of US and Filipino forces on the Bataan peninsula in April 1942 and Corregidor Island the following month.

Powers was reported captured in the Bataan surrender and was among those subjected to the 65-mile (105-kilometer) Bataan Death March and then held at the Cabanatuan prison camp where more than 2,500 POWs died, the agency said.

Powers died on July 18, 1942, and was buried with others in a common grave. After the war, three sets of unidentifiable remains from the grave were reburied at Manila American Cemetery and Memorial. They were disinterred in 2018 for laboratory analysis.

 

 

 

 

 

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3 Hikers Die in Utah Parks as Temperatures Hit Triple Digits

(FILES) The view from the Grand View Point Outlook in the Canyonlands National Park near Moab, Utah on April 24, 2018. (Photo by Mark Ralston / AFP)
(FILES) The view from the Grand View Point Outlook in the Canyonlands National Park near Moab, Utah on April 24, 2018. (Photo by Mark Ralston / AFP)
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3 Hikers Die in Utah Parks as Temperatures Hit Triple Digits

(FILES) The view from the Grand View Point Outlook in the Canyonlands National Park near Moab, Utah on April 24, 2018. (Photo by Mark Ralston / AFP)
(FILES) The view from the Grand View Point Outlook in the Canyonlands National Park near Moab, Utah on April 24, 2018. (Photo by Mark Ralston / AFP)

Three hikers died over the weekend in suspected heat-related cases at state and national parks in Utah, including a father and daughter who got lost on a strenuous hike in Canyonlands National Park in triple-digit temperatures.
The daughter, 23, and her father, 52, sent a 911 text alerting dispatchers that they were lost and had run out of water while hiking the 8.1 miles (13 kilometers) Syncline Loop, described by the National Park Service as the most challenging trail in the Island in the Sky district of the southeast Utah park. The pair set out Friday to navigate steep switchbacks and scramble through boulder fields with limited trail markers as the air temperature surpassed 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius).
Park rangers and a helicopter crew with the Bureau of Land Management began their search for the lost hikers in the early evening Friday, but found them already dead. The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office identified them on Monday as Albino Herrera Espinoza and his daughter, Beatriz Herrera, of Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Due to the jagged terrain, safety officials used a helicopter to airlift the bodies out of the park and to the state medical examiner on Saturday morning, according to the sheriff's office. Their deaths are being investigated as heat-related by the local sheriff and the National Park Service, The Associated Press reported.
Later Saturday, first responders in southwest Utah responded to a call about two hikers “suffering from a heat related incident” at Snow Canyon State Park, which is known for its lava tubes, sand dunes and a canyon carved from red and white Navajo Sandstone.
A multi-agency search team found and treated two hikers who were suffering from heat exhaustion. While they were treating those individuals, a passing hiker informed them of an unconscious person nearby. First responders found the 30-year-old woman dead, public safety officials said.
Her death is being investigated by the Santa Clara-Ivins Public Safety Department. She has not been identified publicly.
Tourists continue to flock to parks in Utah and other southwestern states during the hottest months of the year, even as officials caution that hiking in extreme heat poses serious health risks.
A motorcyclist died earlier this month in Death Valley National Park in eastern California, and another motorcyclist was taken to a hospital for severe heat illness. Both were part of a group that rode through the Badwater Basin area amid scorching weather.
The air temperature in Death Valley reached at least 125 degrees Fahrenheit (52 degrees Celsius) for nine consecutive days July 4-12 — the park’s longest streak at or above that temperature since the early 1900s, the National Park Service announced Monday. Now, parts of the park are experiencing a multiday power outage triggered by a thunderstorm as temperatures continue to linger just above 120 degrees Fahrenheit (49 degrees Celsius).
Late last month, a Texas man died while hiking in Grand Canyon National Park, where summer temperatures on exposed parts of the trails can reach over 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
Elsewhere on Monday, authorities said a 61-year-old man was found dead inside his motor home in eastern Washington state. The man likely died Wednesday when the temperature in the area reached 108 degrees Fahrenheit (42 degrees Celsius), Franklin County Coroner Curtis McGary said.
Authorities also suspected heat in the death of an 81-year-old man Saturday in Oregon but have released no further details. His death brings the state's tally of suspected heat-related deaths to 17 since the July 4 weekend, The Oregonian/Oregonlive.com reported.