Promote & Preserve stories of U.S. fallen soldiers/sailors
Brandon Thomas Titus, age 20, from Boise, Idaho, Ada county.
Service era: Iraq
Military history: B Company, 2D Battalion, 14Th Infantry (10Mtn), Fort Drum, New York
Date of death: Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Death details: Hostile; Baghdad, Iraq
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times
Gregory Lewis Stone, age 40, from Boise, Idaho, Ada county.
Service era: Iraq
School: Oregon State University (1994)
Date of death: Tuesday, March 25, 2003
Death details: He and Capt. Christopher Seifert were killed in a grenade attack at Camp Pennsylvania, Kuawait. Another soldier was convicted by a court-martial in 2005 and sentenced to death.
Source: Department of Defense, CNN, Oregon State University
Johnny Howard Chapman, age 25, from Boise, Idaho, Ada county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Friday, August 20, 1971
Source: National Archives
Edwin Newton Troxel, age 41, from Boise, Idaho, Ada county.
Spouse: Mary Jean (Price)
Children: Kristen and Mark Troxel
Service era: Vietnam
Schools: Boise High, Boise Junior College, University of Oregon at Eugene
Date of death: Monday, August 2, 1971
Death details: Died in an airplane crash in Laos.
Source: National Archives, 35th Infantry Regiment Association, Idaho Free Press (1971)
John Frederick Shiefer, age 30, from Boise, Idaho, Ada county.
Spouse: Judy L. Shiefer
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Saturday, August 29, 1970
Source: National Archives, Fort Worth Star Telegram (1970)
Fred Steven Smart, age 20, from Twin Falls, Idaho, Ada county.
Parents: Fred Smart and Eva Love
Service era: Vietnam
Schools: Twin Falls High (1968)
Date of death: Friday, June 19, 1970
Death details: Killed by a enemy explosive device in Veitnam
Source: National Archives, Twin Falls Times News (1970)
Morris Edward Williams, age 18, from Boise, Idaho, Ada county.
Parents: Morris D. Williams
Service era: Vietnam
Schools: Capital High
Date of death: Friday, February 6, 1970
Cemetery: Morris Hill
Source: National Archives, Idaho Statesman (1970)
Delbert Leonard Riggins, age 25, from Boise, Idaho, Ada county.
Spouse: Mariko Riggins
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Friday, March 16, 1962
Death details: Among 93 soldiers aboard a transport plane on a “secret mission” to Vietnam. Wreaths Across America in 2021: “Very little is known about what happened to the plane and its passengers, and due to the circumstance surrounding this mission, the names of those lost have not yet been added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C.”
Cemetery: A memorial honoring the lives lost was dedicated in 2021 in Columbia Falls, Maine
Source: Atlanta Counstitution (1962), MauiNow (2021), UPI (1962)
James Henry Monroe from Idaho, Ada county.
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Sunday, July 16, 1950
Death details: On the evening of July 15, 1950, the U.S. Army’s 19th Infantry Regiment held defensive positions along the south bank of the Kum River. As dusk approached, North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) tanks appeared on the opposite shore and began firing on the U.S. positions. Although U.S. troops repulsed the attacks that evening, the next morning the NKPA crossed the river and launched a major attack against the 19th Regiment. As the regiment began withdrawing south to Taejon, the North Koreans pushed deep into their defensive lines and set up a roadblock en route to Taejon. When retreating American convoys could not break through the roadblock, soldiers were forced to leave the road and attempt to make their way in small groups across the countryside. Of the 900 soldiers in the 19th Infantry when the Battle of Kum River started, only 434 made it to friendly lines. Corporal James Henry Monroe entered the U.S. Army from Idaho and served with Company C, 1st Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was captured by enemy forces on July 16, 1950, during the Battle of Kum River, and then was marched by stages to prison camps on the bank of the Yalu River in North Korea, known as the “Apex Camps.” CPL Monroe died of unknown causes in September 1950, along the route to the Apex camps, and north from Man’po, North Korea. The disposition of his remains is unknown, and he was not identified among remains returned to U.S. custody after the war. Today, Corporal Monroe is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Harvey A. Bassett, age 28, from Idaho, Ada county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Saturday, November 28, 1942
Death details: 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 at Cabanatuan. Prisoners were forced to bury the dead in makeshift communal graves often completed without records or markers. As a result, identifying and recovering remains interred at Cabanatuan was difficult in the years after the war. Private First Class Harvey A. Bassett entered the U.S. Army from Idaho and 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 of dysentery 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; however, his remains could not be associated with any remains recovered from Cabanatuan after the war. Today, Private First Class Bassett is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Cemetery: Tablets of the Missing at Manila American
Source: National Archives, American Battle Monuments Commission, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency