Nearly 80 Years Later, NJ Soldier Finally Identified After Giving His Life in WWII Burma Jungle Campaign

By: Fern Sidman

In a deeply poignant chapter of World War II history, the remains of U.S. Army Pvt. Roman Cherubini, a young soldier from Bridgeton, New Jersey, have finally been identified nearly eight decades after he was declared killed in action in the treacherous jungles of Burma. As The New York Post reported on Saturday, Cherubini was just 22 years old when he perished during one of the most harrowing campaigns in the China-India-Burma Theater in 1944.

Cherubini served in the legendary 475th Infantry Regiment, a successor unit to the famed 5307th Composite Unit—better known as Merrill’s Marauders. This elite, volunteer jungle warfare unit operated deep behind Japanese lines in Southeast Asia and was formed to disrupt supply chains and communications critical to the Japanese 18th Division. According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), which led the recovery and identification effort, Cherubini died in the grueling fight to capture Myitkyina, a strategically vital airfield in northern Burma.

The New York Post report described the campaign as a series of relentless engagements in some of the harshest terrain imaginable. Between February and August 1944, Merrill’s Marauders marched over 750 miles through malaria-infested jungles and monsoon-soaked valleys, carrying out five major assaults and battling not just a determined Japanese enemy but disease, starvation, and exhaustion.

On May 17, 1944, the Marauders, alongside two Chinese infantry regiments, seized a key airstrip near Myitkyina. However, the broader battle for the city raged for more than two additional months. Pvt. Cherubini lost his life during the thick of that fight on June 16. The exact circumstances of his death remain unclear, but his sacrifice came amid some of the bloodiest and most grueling jungle warfare faced by American forces in the Pacific theater.

The aftermath of the battle only added to the tragedy and confusion. The chaotic nature of the campaign meant many American dead were interred in temporary graves, hastily dug in jungle clearings or scattered across isolated burial sites. According to the information provided in The New York Post report, Cherubini’s remains were believed to have been buried in no fewer than eight different locations over time, including the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific—known as the “Punchbowl”—in Honolulu, Hawaii.

In 2022, the DPAA launched an ambitious effort to account for the soldiers who had never made it home. Cherubini’s remains were exhumed and subjected to rigorous forensic analysis. Using dental records, anthropological examination, and advanced mitochondrial DNA analysis, scientists were able to make a positive identification late last year.

According to DPAA historians cited by The New York Post, Cherubini’s identification not only restores his name and story but adds a crucial human dimension to the history of Merrill’s Marauders, one of the most storied units of World War II. These men operated in conditions that would test the limits of human endurance. By the time the Marauders were disbanded in 1944, the unit had suffered staggering losses: over 200 killed, hundreds more disabled by disease, and countless others lost in the impenetrable Burmese jungle.

Cherubini, a twin, left behind family members who had lived for generations without closure. The DPAA’s announcement now gives those loved ones the long-awaited opportunity to honor him properly. It is expected that his remains will be reinterred with full military honors, though final arrangements have yet to be made public.

His story adds to a growing number of long-lost servicemen whose identities have been confirmed thanks to technological advances and the unwavering commitment of the DPAA, which continues to work diligently to account for the more than 81,000 Americans still missing from past conflicts.

In the words of one DPAA spokesperson quoted in The New York Post, “Every soldier matters. Every name on that wall represents a life given in service to this country. Pvt. Cherubini’s return to his family is a testament to the principle that no one who has served this nation should ever be forgotten.”

With Cherubini’s identification, Americans are once again reminded of the silent, unmarked sacrifices that lie beneath the surface of the nation’s wartime history. His life, cut short in the unforgiving jungle of a foreign land, now shines with renewed clarity and honor—nearly 80 years after he fell in service to his country.