Wallace F. Goodrich

Pvt Wallace F. Goodrich, formerly of the Brainerd area, passed away on October 3, 1942 at the age of 25, while a prisoner of war in the Cabanatuan Prison Camp in the Philippines. A Graveside service will be held at 1 PM on Friday, September 18, 2026, at the Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery north of Little Falls, MN. Cards may be sent to: The Family of PVT Wallace Goodrich, Dale Bourgeois, PO Box 58, Tracyton, Washington 98393. Caring for Wallace and his family is the LeMieur Funeral Home in Little Falls. PVT Wallace F. Goodrich (1918-1942), a soldier in A Company, 194th Tank Battalion, Brainerd, Minnesota, died on October 3, 1942, while a prisoner of war at Cabanatuan Prison Camp, Philippine Islands. PVT Goodrich and his comrades fought America’s first land battle of WWII, the Battle of Bataan, holding off the invading Japanese Army for four months following Japanese attacks in the Philippines on what is remembered as December 7, 1941. With no reinforcements, almost exhausted food and ammunition supplies, defenders were ordered by their command to surrender on April 9, 1942. In part because of the valor of PVT Goodrich and 50,000 other defenders in buying America time, shortly after their surrender, the famous Doolittle Raiders bombed Tokyo. PVT Goodrich and others who survived the 60-mile-long Bataan Death March were imprisoned in harsh food, water and medical care POW camps. PVT Goodrich died from malaria and dysentery, but because of his POW status, he is considered to have been killed in action. PVT Goodrich was buried in a marked, but common grave with other POWs. After the war, all remains from that common grave were secured by American Graves Registration and those which could not be identified were buried in common at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial. In 2019, those remains were disinterred and sent to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, where modern science, commonly known as “DNA,” identified PVT Goodrich, enabling his return to family for interment with military honors. Only recently arrived with his parents and siblings to Lake Edward Township, near Brainerd, Minnesota, Wallace Goodrich attended Brainerd High School, then worked in a custom tailor shop and, in 1939, enlisted in the Minnesota National Guard Tank Company in Brainerd. In early 1941, A Company left for training in Washington State, expecting to return to Brainerd, but as war spread in Europe, A company was federalized as the 194th and deployed to the Philippines 7,000 miles away. The 194th was the first American tank battalion posted to the Philippines and landed there only 90 days before the Japanese attack eliminated all American aircraft, restricting the defense of the Philippines, 700 miles from Japan. By telegram, PVT Goodrich’s parents learned of PVT Goodrich’s POW status in January 1943, and later in 1943 of his death on different dates in late 1942. A memorial service was held for him at Zion Evangelical Church, Brainerd, on July 10, 1943. Because of the inability to identify PVT Goodrich’s remains, he was treated as “missing” and so honored on a Wall of the Missing in Manila. He was awarded a Bronze Star for his service. Following PVT Goodrich in death were his father, Frederick (1957) and mother, Carrie (1954), brothers Roland (1995) and Donald (1973), and sisters, Nadine Maxfield (1994) and Helen Bourgeois (2004). He is survived by his nephew, Dale Bourgeois, and niece, Donna Wright, as well as great-nieces and nephews.

Wallace F. Goodrich

June 21, 1918 - October 3, 1942