WWII soldier returns home to Edmonson County after 80 years

MAMMOTH CAVE, Ky. – On Sunday, the south central Kentucky community showed up in the hundreds to honor a World War II veteran who was finally laid to rest at his home in Edmonson County after 80 years.

Private First Class Thomas Franklin Brooks was a member of the 192nd tank battalion and fought at the battle of Bataan at the beginning of the war and was later sent to the Cabanatuan Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. He spent 8 months there before he died at the age of 23 in December of 1942.

Brooks’ name is one of 36,286 listed as missing on the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial. In 2014, his last surviving sibling, Eula, submitted a DNA sample, and in June of 2023, a positive match was confirmed, allowing Brooks’ remains to be returned to Kentucky to be buried.