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An Ironwood airman who gave his life for our country in World War Two will be laid to rest in his hometown cemetery Saturday.
Cpl. Walter Kellett was stationed in the Philippines when the Japanese invaded in 1942. He was among the troops who surrendered on Corregidor Island. He died in the Cabanatuan Prisoner of War camp later that year. He was one of around 2,500 POWs who were buried there in mass graves.
Following the war, bodies were recovered from the graves and returned to the United States, but it wasn’t until this summer that DNA technology was able to identify Kellett’s remains.
A memorial service will be held Saturday at the McKevitt-Patrick Funeral Home in Ironwood, followed by interment with military honors at Ironwood’s Riverside Cemetery.
