World War II Honoree

Evans Ernest Overbey

Branch of Service

U.S. Army Air Force

Hometown

Lipps, Virginia

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Private. On June 20, 1942, he entered the United States Army Air Corps at Roanoke, Virginia. After his combat training and aviation schooling, he received an assignment to the 93rd Bomb Squadron, 19th Bomb Group, deployed from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Clark Army Airfield on Luzon, Philippine Islands. Assigned to a provisional infantry company, he participated in the Philippine Campaign, the conquest of the Philippine Islands by the Imperial Japanese Army and Naval Forces. He became a Prisoner of War of the Japanese during the ‘Fall of the Philippines’ May 9, 1942, and incarcerated at the Prisoner of War Camp Cabanatuan, Nueva Province on Luzon. On Thursday, November 19, 1942, he died of unknown causes and buried in a common grave at the Cabanatuan Prisoner of War Cemetery. In June of 2014, a private organization discovered a collective burial grave and the remains were transferred to the defense prisoner of war/missing in action accounting agency in Hawaii where he was identified. The remains of this Airman were reinterred with Military Honors at the Mountain Home National Cemetery July 15, 2016 in Johnson City, Tennessee. This Airman, an American Patriot, awarded the Purple Heart and Prisoner of War Medal posthumously, who so gallantly gave his life for his country.