Delaware soldier who saved fellow POWs before dying in World War II accounted for, military officials say
A soldier from Delaware who was killed during World War II has been accounted for, military officials announced this week.
U.S. Army Lt. Col. Louis E. Roemer, 43, of Wilmington, Delaware, who died while he was being held by Japan as a prisoner of war, was officially accounted for in July 2025, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said on Wednesday. The agency is sharing details publicly now that his family has received a full briefing, the announcement says.
Roemer was assigned to the Army's Chemical Warfare Service in early 1942 and was stationed on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines, according to the agency's news release. He was captured and held as a prisoner of Japan in the Philippines until 1945, when the Japanese military moved POWs to Manila for transport to Japan aboard a ship called the Oryoku Maru. Unaware that Allied POWs were on board, a U.S. carrier attacked the ship, which then sank in Subic Bay. Roemer was then put on a different ship, the Enoura Maru. The Taiwan-bound ship was also attacked by the U.S. on Jan. 9, 1945 and eventually sank. Roemer was then placed aboard a ship called the Brazil Maru bound for Japan but reportedly died during the journey of acute colitis.
Japanese records from this time contain errors, so Roemer may have died sooner in the transport process or even in the second ship attack, military officials said.
After the war ended, the American Graves Registration Command was responsible for investigating and recovering missing U.S. personnel.
A search and recovery team recovered 311 bodies from a mass grave in Takao, Formosa, in 1946 but was unable to identify them. The remains were then buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, officials said in the announcement.
In 2022 and 2023, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency disinterred unidentified bodies tied to the Enoura Maru from the Punchbowl. Scientists used dental records and other evidence to identify Roemer's remains.
A newspaper clipping shared by officials about Roemer's death says his wife, Mary D. Roemer, found out he died the day before Japan surrendered. According to another article, a soldier said Roemer slipped away from the camp during the Bataan Death March to get wood to make medicine for soldiers suffering from dysentery. He saved hundreds of lives, it says.
Roemer's widow accepted two military awards on behalf of her husband, one newspaper article says. He left behind a son, also named Louis.
Roemer's name is on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines. A rosette will be added next to his name to show he has been accounted for, officials said. His remains will be buried again on a date to be determined.