The Long Way Home: The Identification of Private First-Class Thomas Vernon “Louie” Long
- Laureta Huit
- 9 hours ago
- 12 min read
By Curator Aaron Krebsbach
In late October, early November of last year, I had the opportunity to meet and speak with a family member of the 200th. They had come in to update us on the story of their family from a past display we had had in our hallway to our gallery. They spoke with me about a man from Portales who was in the 200th Coast Artillery (Anti-Aircraft) at the Philippines, survived the Death March, and had died at Cabanatuan. They updated us with an incredible story of misidentification, reidentification, and returning home of Private First-Class Thomas Vernon “Louie” Long.
Born in Portales on January 21, 1915, Thomas Vernon Long was the second of seven children and the only son of Oscar and Bettie Long. He went by his middle name Vernon and often dotted on his youngest sister, Billy Jean. Jean remembers her brother as a loving, protective older brother who dotted on her. She recalls how she loved pineapple and Vernon would buy one, take it to the kitchen and cut it up and let Jean eat as much as she wanted before he let the other siblings have any. She also recalls how during one Christmas, there was a contest to guess the number of beans in a gallon jar and the prize was a Shirley Temple doll. Vernon bought a gallon jar and beans, filled the jar and counted them and won the doll for her. She kept the doll till she was around 18.
Vernon attended Portales High School and graduated in 1933 and went on to study agriculture and play football for three universities including New Mexico A&M, now New Mexico State, and graduated from college in 1939. His father insisted the family attended his games, but Jean stayed in the car and listened on the radio because she did not want to see her brother get hurt. Between his studies and football, Vernon found time to work with the Civilian Conservation Corps from 1934 to 1935, working as a truck driver.
In 1940, President Roosvelt, seeing the writing on the wall with the ongoing Sino-Japanese War and the Blitz on Britain by Germany, signed into law the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, also known as the Burke–Wadsworth Act. It was America’s first peacetime draft, and Vernon was caught in it. He and 24 other men from Portales were sworn into service of the New Mexico National Guard in March 1941. Leaving ahead of a dust storm that blanketed Portales on March 10, 1941, Vernon and the other 24 men were sent to the National Guard Armory in Santa Fe for processing and then, with the rest of the inductees, on to Fort Bliss, Texas for training. Vernon was assigned to Battery E of the 200th Coast Artillery (Anti-Aircraft) New Mexico National Guard. After the success of their training, having outperformed both regular Army and National Guard units in training, the 200th was selected for deployment to the Philippines. 1,816 men strong, the 200th made their way to San Fransico Bay. While stopped in Albuquerque, Vernon’s family came out to see him off, not knowing that it would be the last time they saw him alive.
In the Philippines, PFC Long found time to write to his family and talked about life in the military and the down time he had, describing the scenery, weather, and people of a place he had never been before. In his letters, he described the heat and humidity of the tropical climate of the Philippines and how it made things uncomfortable at the height of the day but not as bad the rest of the day or during the night, when it cooled. He also wrote about getting use to how much the US Dollar was worth overseas at the time, with $1 USD equaling about 2 Filipino Pescos, and the difference in pricing, specifically of beer and cigarettes, versus back home in Portales.
PFC Long also keyed his family into how military life was on deployment, saying it was about the same as at Fort Bliss, but slightly better as they were in wooden barracks instead of rows of tents. He noted that they were stationed 57 miles from Manila next to an airbase, Clark Field, at Fort Stotsenburg and he had some opportunities to go into Manila and the people were friendly. One of the last things he addressed was the money he was sending home. Like many soldiers at the time, PFC Long was sending what he could home to help his family financially. He stated in one of his letters he was sending home $100 to $200 when he could and one of his last letters, a postcard dated December 6, 1941, he inquired about a money order he sent, told them that he was fine, tell everyone hello, and to write.
December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Naval and Air Stations at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and, on the other side of the International Date Line, the Japanese attacked other U.S. stations in the Pacific, including Clark Field in the Philippines. The 200th went on full alert at 3 AM December 8, 1941, and later in the day became the first U.S. Regiment to engage and shoot down Japanese aircraft during the bombing and strafing of Clark Field. In defense of Clark Field, Manila, and future the retreat lines to Bataan, 500 enlisted men and 20 officers were transferred from the 200th and formed the 515th Coast Artillery with men from the Regular Army and Organized Reserves. Vernon was among the men transferred out of into the 515th, assigned to Battery B. The last letter Vernon’s family received from him was around Christmas of 1941, as he and the rest of the 515th moved out of Manila and into defense of the retreat lines and Cabcaben Airfield. As the Japanese continued their advance on the island of Luzon, U.S. and Filipino defense forces retreated to the Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor Island. On April 9, 1942, the forces at Bataan were surrendered, with Vernon among them. Corregidor fell on May 6, 1942, and the rest of the U.S. and Filipino forces were surrendered, and the Philippines fell to the Japanese.
The surrender of the Philippines left several thousand Prisoners of War, American and Filipino, in the care of the Japanese who treated their prisoners in some of the harshest ways possible. Every POW was forced to turn out their pockets and present anything on their person. Anyone found to have Japanese items, money, watches, or other souvenirs, were executed with the assumption being that they had gotten them from a dead Japanese soldier. The men quickly discarded or well hid these items and other items of value from their capturers. They were then sent on a 65-mile forced march from the Bataan Peninsula where they were subjected to torture, beatings, starvation, and thirst. On the march, any who asked for water or attempted to get any from pools along the route were killed. Anyone who fell behind or were to fatigue to go on were killed. They were subjected to “sun torture” where they were forced to sit out in the sweltering sun with nothing to cover their heads or offer any shade. Men were beaten and killed at random the entire way. Torture and starvation allowed for the significant spread of diseases, further weakening the prisoners. Filipinos tried to help by sneaking men food, water, and some medical supplies at great risk to their own lives. Those who were caught trying to aid the prisoners were killed. Once they reached the San Fernando Railheads, they were piled into trains, packed in so tightly they could barely move, helping to increase the spread disease. With as tight as they were packed, the dead remained upright till they reached Capas, where they disembarked and marched to Camp O’Donnell, the last stop for many as disease and appalling treatment from the Japanese on the march and in the Camp killed them. But it was only the first stop for many others who were transferred from O’Donnell to Cabanatuan, and for others on to Hell Ships bound for work camps across the Japanese Empire.
In June 1942, the POWs were transferred from O’Donnell to Cabanatuan where disease and harsh treatment continued to plague the malnutrition men till their liberation on January 30, 1945. Through the entirety of the atrocity of the Bataan Death March, Vernon prevailed and made it to Cabanatuan. Unfortunately, he did not live to see liberation from his captures. Vernon caught and died from Cerebral Malaria on August 28, 1942 at the age of 27, according to Military Records. He was buried in one of the mass graves at Cabanatuan. In April 1943, the Army delivered the telegram to the Long family.
From the Liberation of Cabanatuan, the Campaign for the Philippines lasted till the official Japanese Surrender on August 15, 1945, though General Douglas MacArthur declared the Philippines liberated on July 5, 1945. The Japanese had been pushed into pockets and fell out of radio contact with Tokyo and never received the order to surrender from Emperor Hirohito, causing pockets of holdouts across the former Japanese Empire. The last holdout in the Philippines surrendering in March 1974.
On September 2, 1945, on the USS Missouri, Japan signed the surrender and officially ending the Second World War. In December 1945, efforts to start exhuming, identifying, and sending home remains from Cabanatuan were started by the 111th Quartermaster Graves Registration Platoon. Relying heavily on identification tags, they worked to recover and repatriate the men who did not survive the camp. Any remains they could not identify right away were sent to Manila for further investigation and identification. The 111th worked with dental characteristics and records from the camp to try and identify as many men as possible in an effort to get them home and back to their families. In September 1949, Vernon’s family was informed that he was identified, and the remains were sent to Portales with strict instructions to not open the casket under any circumstance. The funeral was attended by Bataan Survivors, family, friends and many others. Vernon was buried in Portales Cemetery on October 9, 1949, with full Military Honors. But something told his mother and baby sister Jean that it was not him in the casket, a gut feeling they both shared.
72 years after the burial, 79 years after his death, in 2021 the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) contacted Vernon’s family asking for DNA samples from several members of the family. The family complied and provided the requested samples. After running several extensive tests and cross-referencing with the samples and records, PFC Thomas Vernon “Louie” Long was identified as the remains that they were examining. Under the watchful eye of an Honor Guard, he was sent home with a member of the Honor Guard always at his side. Instead of a troop ship back stateside, an American Airlines flight brought him back to fair New Mexico, with a ceremony by the American Airlines Honor Guard at Dallas-Fort Worth to change planes. On June 8, 2023, Private First-Class Thomas Vernon “Louie” Long was laid to rest in Portales Cemetery with Military Honors. The folded flag presented to his sister Billy Jean Sawyer, who was 15 the last time she saw her loving older brother.
Though PFC Long has returned home to Portales, the question now becomes, who is the soldier that was in his grave for 75 years. Using modern examination methods and DNA testing, the DPAA hopes to find out. The DPAA was formed in 2015 from the merger of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office, and parts of the United States Air Force's Life Sciences Lab. Their Mission: Provide the fullest possible accounting for our missing personnel to their families and the nation. Why? Because they believe in NEVER leaving a man behind. The DPAA works to ensure that each MIA and POW are accounted for and that the families get their loved ones returned to them. Among the many projects and initiatives, the DPAA works on, they are tasked with continuing where the 111th was forced to stop in the 1951, the identification of the men unidentifiable from Cabanatuan.
In July 1951, it was determined that due to the commingling, excessive handling, errors, and the deterioration of the remains, no further identification of the unknown remains would be credible and the 111th was ordered to stop attempts at identification. The 2,700 casualties they were working with, including the 999 POWs of Cabanatuan, were buried as unknowns in the Fort McKinley Cemetery, now the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial. In August 2014, a case was made that scientific technology had come far enough that using DNA analysis and historical evidence, they can identify those who the 111th were unable. The work on the unknowns of Cabanatuan was resumed. Testing of the remains and records showed that the comingling of remains between gravesites that happened during the attempt to identify them brought into doubt the identification of several sets of remains that had been positively identified and set the standard for the identification process, all possibilities are to be pursued based on available records. In January 2017, three sets of remains from were exhumed from the Cemetery in Manila and sent to Hawaii for testing. The remains came from the shared grave Common Grave (CG) 305 in Cabanatuan, which was open at the same time as CG 306, where Vernon was believed to have been identified from in 1949.
The DPAA started the work of identifying the remains from the gravesite by using DNA testing to ensure parts of the remains that belonged together were. In testing the remains, the DPAA found that the theory that the commingling of remains into complete sets was correct and that the men from CG 305 and CG 306 were commingled together. This put all men nine men that were possibly buried in the two graves as possible matches for the remains. The DPAA started testing the teeth, right ulna, os coxa, femur, tibia, and fibula for possible matches and were able to rule out four possible men based on file samples from their families that were on hand. After obtaining DNA from members of Vernon’s family, from his sister Jean as well as a nephew, and two nieces, the DPAA found a match for the maternal line within the Mitochondrial DNA of his family and a nuclear match to his dear sister. The DNA match, coupled with anthropological testing and examination, and rigorous dental testing, showed that the remains they were working with belonged to Vernon. The follow up report reported that the remains buried in Portales did not have the correct dental structure to be Vernon, and that the DPAA were moving to exhume them and reinter the correct remains. Permission was granted and Vernon was returned to Portales and the remains in his grave were sent back to Hawaii where the DPAA will work to identify the remains and return them to the family who have been waiting for their soldier to return home.
In Arlington National Cemetery, there sits a marble Tomb and Sarcophagus with a sentinel of the 3rd Infantry Regiment patrolling 21 steps across, stop left face to the tomb, wait 21 seconds, left face, wait 21 seconds, march 21 steps across, stop right face to the tomb, wait 21 seconds, right face, wait 21 seconds, 21 steps across, and continues to repeat the pattern with his M14 rifle always on his outside shoulder, away from the tomb. On the western marble panel is inscribed, “HERE RESTS IN HONORED GLORY AN AMERICAN SOLDIER KNOWN BUT TO GOD” This is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Created first in 1931 to honor those who were missing and unidentified from the First World War. The phrase, “KNOWN BUT TO GOD” is taken from the phrase chosen by Rudyard Kipling, author of such works as the Jungle Book and the poem Gunga Din, for British Unknowns, “KNOWN UNTO GOD”. Kipling himself lost his son John at the Battle of Loos in 1915, and his remains were not identified while Kipling was alive. The Tomb of the Unknown is the US monument to those soldiers we cannot or have not been identified. Modern technology and testing may make it so that fewer soldiers will suffer the fate of the three soldiers entombed there. Unlike John Kipling, Vernon was thought to have been identified and returned home in 1949. But like John Kipling, it would take around 80 years for him to actually be identified. John Kipling was identified by a Military Historian who used deductive reasoning and historical research to locate his final resting place, but Vernon’s took a more scientific approach. An approach that the DPAA will continue to use to ensure that no man is left behind and every US soldier is returned to his family and honored for the service and sacrifice he made for this nation.
As you are reading this, the sentry at the Tomb of the Unknown stands guard. Ever vigilante. Ever Pacing. Ever ready to defend and maintain the sanctity of the hallowed ground of the Tomb. In the DPAA labs another set of remains are being examined and tested in an effort to get another U.S. military man home. Excursions are being planned in DPAA Offices to try and locate the missing whose remains are unaccounted for. And members of the DPAA’s field teams are out searching for them. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history. The war left 73,679 US Service men, women, and civilians missing, roughly 87% of the 84,606 missing from US conflicts since the start of World War II, since recording started in 1972. Only 1,726 and counting, as of the publication of this article, have been identified. 562 New Mexicans are still missing from World War II, 75 of them from Cabanatuan. If you or any one you know has family missing from any U.S. conflict, visit the DPAA’s website to find out how you can donate DNA to help them identify and get the missing home and bring closure for those families who never knew what happened to them.
