ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – U.S. Army Cpl. Richard A. Veal, a New Mexico National Guard Soldier who fought in the defense of Bataan during World War II, returned home to New Mexico April 21.
The New Mexico Army National Guard Funeral Honors Team rendered planeside honors. Among those in attendance were Veal's nieces and nephews, who witnessed his return after more than eight decades.
Veal served with Battery C, 200th Coast Artillery Regiment before the Japanese invasion in December 1941. After months of sustained combat, U.S. and Filipino forces surrendered the Bataan Peninsula on April 9, 1942.
Veal was among those captured and forced to endure the 65-mile Bataan Death March before being held at Cabanatuan Prisoner of War Camp #1. According to historical records, Veal died on Dec. 27, 1942, and was buried in a common grave at the camp cemetery alongside other fallen prisoners.
Following the war, efforts to recover and identify the dead led to the exhumation of remains from the Cabanatuan cemetery. Veal’s remains were ultimately interred as an unknown at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.
As part of the Cabanatuan Project, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency exhumed remains associated with Veal’s burial site in December 2020. Scientists used a combination of dental and anthropological analysis, mitochondrial DNA sequencing and nuclear DNA testing to confirm his identity, officially accounting for him on Sept. 29, 2025.
For decades, Veal’s name was inscribed on the Walls of the Missing. A rosette will now be placed next to his name, signifying he has been accounted for and brought home.
The 200th and 515th Coast Artillery Regiments were among the first units engaged in the defense of the Philippines in 1941. When Bataan was surrendered, hundreds of those Soldiers were killed in action, died during the Bataan Death March or perished in prisoner of war camps. Nearly half of the regiments never returned home, and many remain unaccounted.
Veal will be buried at the Santa Fe National Cemetery on April 24.