{"id":692381,"date":"2026-03-30T12:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T12:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/692381\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T12:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T12:18:13","slug":"dna-test-connects-jacksonville-family-to-wwii-pow-missing-for-over-80-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/692381\/","title":{"rendered":"DNA test connects Jacksonville family to WWII POW missing for over 80 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLAY COUNTY, Fla. <\/strong> \u2013 A World War II Navy sailor is finally being laid to rest after being listed as missing in action for more than 80 years. Modern technology \u2014 including DNA testing \u2014 made it possible. His only known family members are right here in the Jacksonville area.<\/p>\n

Edward Campbell, who lives in Clay County with his daughter, Tina Carmona, received an unexpected call from the Navy a few months ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey got in contact with me,\u201d Edward said. \u201cThey said, \u2018We\u2019re going to send you a DNA test. If you\u2019ll take that and get it back to us, we want to verify who you are.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a match. Edward is the nephew of Navy Sailor John Campbell, who was held as a prisoner of war during World War II. According to the Navy, his remains were found at Camp Cabanatuan in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of unbelievable,\u201d Edward said. \u201cI didn\u2019t realize that I had a relative like that, and I didn\u2019t know he died in a POW camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

A sailor\u2019s story<\/b><\/p>\n

John Campbell served aboard the USS Canopus, a submarine tender operating in the Philippines during World War II. He was captured by the Japanese in the early 1940s after the ship was scuttled and sailors were moved ashore.<\/p>\n

Family members and the Navy believe he likely took part in the Bataan Death March \u2014 a forced march of more than 75,000 prisoners over roughly 65 miles to prison camps in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

In an unexpected twist, Edward served in the Navy for 23 years \u2014 including significant time in the Philippines \u2014 without knowing his family\u2019s connection to the region.<\/p>\n

A mother\u2019s final wish<\/b><\/p>\n

John Campbell\u2019s mother, Margaret Campbell, never stopped searching for her son. Several letters were sent by the American Legion on her behalf to the Department of War, requesting information and the return of his remains.<\/p>\n

Margaret died in 1951 with one final wish: that her son be buried beside her when he was found.<\/p>\n

Even with the closure his remains bring, much about John Campbell\u2019s life is still a mystery to his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know anything about him \u2014 like why he joined,\u201d said Tina Carmona, Edward\u2019s daughter. Asked about other surviving relatives, she added, \u201cThere\u2019s one cousin, but I don\u2019t know who he is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming home<\/b><\/p>\n

John Campbell will be buried in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, on Monday, March 30 \u2014 next to his mother, fulfilling her decades-long wish.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad they recovered his remains,\u201d Edward said, \u201cand I\u2019m glad he\u2019s going to be buried with his mother.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLAY COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 A World War II Navy sailor is finally being laid to rest after being…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":692382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,289986,59496,3188,723,7310,1802,169409,202674,25730,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,289985,41048],"class_list":["post-692381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-america","tag-bataan-death-march","tag-dna-testing","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-jacksonville","tag-military","tag-pow","tag-prisoner-of-war","tag-u-s-navy","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-uss-canopus","tag-world-war-ii"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116318090604738494","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}