Description
Private First Class Reuben E. Habecker was laid to rest with full military honors at Riverside National Cemetery — 80 years after he was lost to World War II.
Identified as MIA/POW/KIA, PFC Habecker's final journey began with a dignified arrival, escorted home by the Ontario Police Department, Ontario Fire Department, USO, Patriot Guard Riders, Riverside County Sheriff's Department, Riverside City Fire Department, and so many others who lined the way to honor him. Today, surrounded by that same honor, he was finally laid to rest.
Welcome home, and thank you for your sacrifice.
His Story:
On June 12, 2025, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified the remains of U.S. Army Air Forces Pfc. Reuben E. Habecker, missing from World War II.
Habecker entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from California and served with the 28th Bombardment Squadron, 19th Bombardment Group in the Philippines. He was captured by enemy forces during the Japanese invasion of the islands in April 1942 and interned in the Philippines until December 13, 1944, when Japanese forces began transferring 1,621 Allied prisoners of war to Japan aboard transport ships so brutal in their conditions that survivors called them "Hell Ships."
On December 14, unaware that American POWs were aboard, Allied aircraft attacked the first ship, the Oryoku Maru, in Subic Bay. Survivors were moved to two more ships, the Enoura Maru and the Brazil Maru, to continue toward Japan. While anchored in Takao Harbor, Formosa (present-day Taiwan), the Enoura Maru came under attack by Allied aircraft.
The Japanese government reported that Habecker died aboard the Enoura Maru on January 9, 1945. After the war, the American Graves Registration Command was tasked with recovering missing American personnel. In May 1946, a Search and Recovery Team exhumed a mass grave on a beach at Takao, recovering 311 bodies — but at the time, none could be identified. They were laid to rest as Unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.
Between October 2022 and July 2023, DPAA disinterred Unknowns linked to the Enoura Maru and brought them to the DPAA Laboratory for further study. Through careful scientific analysis and the full weight of circumstantial evidence, one set of remains was finally identified as Reuben E. Habecker.
Eighty years. A promise kept. Rest easy, Private First Class Habecker. 🇺🇸🦋