Born: December 1, 1913 Corporal, United States Army Service #19021117
D CO, 31ST INFANTRY REGIMENT, PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, UNITED STATES ARMY FORCES FAR EAST (USAFFE)
Home or Place of Enlistment: Poplar, Idaho Date of Loss: November 28, 1942
Private First Class Bassett served with Company D of the 31st Infantry Regiment in the Philippines during World War II. He was captured in Bataan following the American surrender and died on November 28, 1942, at the Cabanatuan Prison Camp in Nueva Ecija Province. He was buried in a communal grave in the camp cemetery along with other deceased American POWs.
Following the Allied surrender on the Bataan Peninsula on April 9, 1942, the Japanese began the forcible transfer of American and Filipino prisoners of war to various prison camps in central Luzon, at the northern end of the Philippines. The largest of these camps was the notorious Cabanatuan Prison Camp. At its peak, Cabanatuan held approximately 8,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war that were captured during and after the Fall of Bataan. Camp overcrowding worsened with the arrival of Allied prisoners who had surrendered from Corregidor on May 6, 1942. Conditions at the camp were poor and food and water supplied extremely limited, leading to widespread malnutrition and outbreaks of malaria and dysentery. By the time the camp was liberated in early 1945, approximately 2,800 Americans had died there.