The remains of an Iowa sailor who died in a Japanese prison camp more than 80 years ago will be buried in Sioux City Saturday. Fireman first class Robert Shove (long O Show) was born in Cherokee in 1922 and lived most of his life in Sioux City before joining the Navy in 1940. Shove’s nephew Michael O’Brien says his uncle was captured in Corrigador as he and his shipmates from the U-S-S Canopus fought the Japanese. He was then sent on the “Bataan Death March” to a prison in the Philippine Islands.
O’Brien says the family knew Shove had died in 1943, but he was buried in a mass grave with others who died at the prison and efforts to identify the remains after the war couldn’t make a positive I-D.
The 73-year-old O’Brien says the military determined he was the closest living relative and called him to say the bones had been identified.
He says his mother was one of eleven children and he had not known the entire story of his uncle.
O’Brien lives in Medford, Massachusetts and he and his drove to Iowa for the funeral. They were on hand in Council Bluffs Thursday for the dignified transfer of remains. He tells Radio Iowa a color guard escorted Shove’s casket from the plane.
O’Brien says it hit him that this was his mother’s brother.
O’Brien says he also reflected on what his uncle’s sacrifice and and how long it finally took to bring him back home.
O’Brien says his brothers and sisters are all coming to Sioux City for the funeral at noon Saturday and burial with military honors at Memorial Park Cemetery. Governor Kim Reynolds has ordered all flags in Iowa to fly at half-staff from sunrise to sunset on Saturday in honor of Shove.
