Reed Graves was born on October 13, 1898, in Pennsylvania. He was the son of Edwin Darius Graves Sr. and Florence Reed Graves. He was first married to Alice Bagwell Graves and later to Louise Alston Wragg Graves. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at west Point in 1924. He served in the 101st Infantry Regiment, 101st Division Philippine Army, as a Lieutenant Colonel during World War II.

LTC Graves was captured in the Fall of the Philippines in 1942 and held as a Prisoner of War. He was later transported as a POW aboard the Japanese ship Arisan Maru. On October 24, 1944, the ship was sunk by the U.S.S. Shark, unaware it carried American prisoners, causing the largest loss of American lives at sea, with only nine survivors out of 1,782 POWs and about 100 civilians.

He was declared Missing in Action and officially declared dead on October 24, 1944. 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: www.findagrave.com, weremember.abmc.gov