(Half-Staff Flag at Iowa Capitol - KIWA Staff Photo)Sioux City, Iowa (RI) — The remains of an Iowa sailor who died in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp during World War II will be laid to rest Saturday, more than 80 years after his death.
Fireman First Class Robert Shove was born in Cherokee in 1922 and spent much of his life in Sioux City before joining the U.S. Navy in 1940. Shove was captured after the Fall of Corregidor in the Philippines and survived the Bataan Death March before being imprisoned.
His nephew, Michael O’Brien, says Shove endured 18 months in captivity before dying in 1943.
Although the family knew Shove had died during the war, his remains were buried with others in a mass grave. Efforts to identify him after the war were unsuccessful, and he was eventually buried as an unknown service member in the Philippines.
Decades later, the remains were exhumed and sent to Hawaii for additional testing. In 2019, military officials were able to make a positive identification using DNA provided by one of Shove’s younger brothers.
O’Brien says receiving the call that his uncle had finally been identified was difficult to process.
He says his mother was one of 11 children, and he is just learning about his uncle’s story.
O’Brien and other family members attended the dignified transfer of Shove’s remains in Council Bluffs on Thursday.
The moment brought a deeply personal connection to the uncle he never knew.
For O’Brien, the return of Shove’s remains marks the end of a journey that began more than eight decades ago.
Funeral services are scheduled for noon Saturday in Sioux City, followed by a burial with military honors at Memorial Park Cemetery. Gov. Kim Reynolds has ordered all Iowa flags to be flown at half-staff from sunrise to sunset Saturday in honor of Stove.
