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Iowa WWII Sailor ID'd 82 Years After Death
29 Oct
Summary
- Robert Glenn Shove, a WWII sailor from Iowa, has been identified 82 years after his death.
- He died as a prisoner of war in the Philippines in October 1943.
- His remains were recently identified in December 2025 after being exhumed multiple times.
Eighty-two years after his death, Navy Fireman First Class Robert Glenn Shove, a native of Washta, Iowa, has been accounted for. Shove died on October 27, 1943, as a prisoner of war in the Philippines. He was serving on the USS Canopus when Japanese forces invaded in December 1941. Following the surrender of Corregidor Island in May 1942, Shove was among those captured and forced onto the Bataan Death March.
His remains were initially buried in a common grave at Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery. Exhumed by U.S. forces after the war, they were later interred at Fort McKinley Cemetery in the Philippines without identification. A significant step occurred in November 2019 when the remains were disinterred for examination. These efforts culminated in the formal identification of Shove's remains in December 2025.
Shove, who graduated from Wilson High School in 1940 and enlisted in the Navy in Des Moines in June 1940, is remembered by his family with pride. His identification brings a sense of closure to his nephews and nieces. A funeral service with military honors is scheduled for November 7 in Sioux City, Iowa, where he will be buried at Memorial Park Cemetery.
