Howard Rand Perry Jr. was born on August 13, 1898, in McHenry, McHenry County, Illinois. He was the son of Howard Rand Perry and Gertrude Morgan Perry. He was married to Elizabeth Bacon Perry.He was a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, graduating in 1919. He entered the U.S. Army and served at Headquarters of the Visayan-Mindanao Force in the Philippines during World War II.

Captured by Japanese forces, he was held as a prisoner of war at PW Camp #2 in Davao, Mindanao, until December 1944, when he was placed aboard the Oryoku Maru “Hell Ship” for transfer to Japan. He survived the sinking of the ship at Subic Bay and was later moved with other survivors onto the Brazil Maru.

On January 28, 1945, Colonel Perry died from wounds sustained in earlier attacks and was buried at sea. His remains were never recovered, and his name is memorialized in the Tablets of the Missing in the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Manila, Capital District, National Capital Region, Philippines.

Source of information: weremember.abmc.gov, www.findagrave.com