Zachary Blaise Tomczak, age 24, from Huron, South Dakota, Beadle county.
Service era: Iraq
Military history: Company B, 2D Battalion, 325Th Infantry, Fort Bragg, Nc
Date of death: Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Death details: Hostile; Baghdad, Iraq
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times
Daniel Dean Bartels, age 22, from Huron, South Dakota, Beadle county.
Service era: Iraq
Military history: Hhc, 4Th Squadron, 14Th Cavalry, (2Mef), Fort Wainwright, Ak
Date of death: Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Death details: Merez Aid Station, Iraq
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times
Roger Lee Porter, age 21, from Huron, South Dakota, Beadle county.
Parents: Lester and Jane Porter
Service era: Vietnam
Schools: Huron High (1967)
Date of death: Saturday, June 20, 1970
Death details: Died of wounds received at Cam Rahn Bay, South Vietnam
Cemetery: Graceland Cemetery, Mitchell
Source: National Archives, Mitchell Daily Republic (1970)
Dwain Erven Schwartz, age 21, from Beadle County Wolsey, South Dakota .
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Tuesday, July 14, 1953
Death details: On July 13, 1953, the U.S. Army’s 555th Field Artillery Battalion was positioned to support the Republic of Korea (ROK) 6th Division along a stretch of line known as the Kumsong Salient, when the Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) launched a massive night attack. The 555th Field Artillery continued to fire in support of the ROK forces during the initial stage of the attack, despite coming under heavy enemy artillery fire themselves. However, early on July 14, CCF troops penetrated the ROK lines and were able to attack the 555th’s own positions. Several battery positions were overrun by the numerically superior attackers before a withdrawal order was received. By that point, few men were actually able to withdraw. Some managed to evade enemy forces and work their way back to friendly lines over the following days, but a number of the 555th Field Artillery’s men were captured by the enemy or went missing. The battlefield now lies on the North Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea. Corporal Dwain Erven Schwartz, who entered the U.S. Army from South Dakota, served with Battery C, 555th Field Artillery Battalion, 24th Infantry Division, and was among the men lost in this attack. He was reported as missing in action, but eyewitness testimony collected later from a survivor of the battle revealed that he had actually been killed by enemy forces while defending his gun position on July 14. His remains were not recovered at the time, and follow-on search efforts have been impeded by the fact that the loss area now lies in North Korean territory. Today, Corporal Schwartz is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Forest Archie Nelson, age 25, from South Dakota, Beadle county.
Service era: Korea
Military history: Purple Heart
Date of death: Wednesday, August 6, 1952
Death details: Captain Forest Archie Nelson, who joined the U.S. Marine Corps from South Dakota, served with Marine Attack Squadron 212, Marine Air Group 12. On August 6, 1952, he departed Pyongtaek Air Base in an AU-1 Corsair (bureau number 129328) in a flight of three on a close air support mission to Kwijon-ni.
After several passes over the target, his aircraft was hit by enemy fire and he made a forced landing in a rice paddy. He was seen by other pilots to fold up his parachute and walk towards a hill south of the rice paddy. Several patrols of enemy soldiers then converged on him and the other pilots watching lost sight of him. He was not reported to be a prisoner of war, and his remains were not identified among those returned to U.S. custody after the ceasefire. Today, Captain Nelson is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Cemetery: Memorialized in Black Hills National
Source: National Archives, grave marker, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Dale Albert Dollenbacher, age 21, from Beadle County Carvour, South Dakota .
Parents: Albert F. Dollenbacher
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Thursday, November 30, 1950
Death details: By mid-November 1950, U.S. and Allied forces had advanced to within approximately sixty miles of the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and China. On November 25, approximately 300,000 Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) “volunteers” suddenly and fiercely counterattacked after crossing the Yalu. The 2nd Infantry Division, located the farthest north of units at the Chongchon River, could not halt the CCF advance and was ordered to withdraw to defensive positions at Sunchon in the South Pyongan province of North Korea. As the division pulled back from Kunu-ri toward Sunchon, it conducted an intense rearguard action while fighting to break through well-defended roadblocks set up by CCF infiltrators. The withdrawal was not complete until December 1, and the 2nd Infantry Division suffered extremely heavy casualties in the process. Corporal Rance H. Dodson, who joined the U.S. Army from Pennsylvania, served with Battery C, 38th Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He went missing in action on November 30, 1950, as his unit was making a fighting withdrawal from Kunu-ri south to Sunchon. No one saw him fall, and he was not reported as a confirmed prisoner of war. The confusion of the battlefield precluded the immediate retrieval of the fallen, and later searches were not possible because the battlefield area was in enemy territory. Corporal Dodson’s remains were not identified among those returned to U.S. custody after the war. Today, Corporal Dodson is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. His name is also inscribed on the Korean War Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC, which was updated in 2022 to include the names of the fallen.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Argus Leader (1954)
Keith Wayne Gordon, age 19, from Wolsey, South Dakota, Beadle county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Monday, June 18, 1945
Cemetery: Memorialized in Black Hills National
Source: National Archives, grave marker
Erle Jay Gillenberg, age 24, from Wolsey, South Dakota, Beadle county.
Parents: Clara E. (Dalrymple) Gillenberg and Peter A. Gillenberg
Spouse: None
Children: None
Service era: World War II
Schools: Wolsey High (1940); Coyne Electrical School in Chicago
Military history: Purple Heart; Entered Navy Reserves on February 16, 1942.
Date of death: Monday, March 19, 1945
Death details: Killed when Kamikaze planes struck the USS Franklin.
Cemetery: Memorialized in Black Hills National
Source: Grave marker, Redfield High School
Orville Kendall LaCraft, age 24, from Huron, South Dakota, Beadle county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Friday, August 4, 1944
Cemetery: Memorialized in Black Hills National
Source: National Archives, grave marker
Robert Donald Jenks, age 20, from Huron, South Dakota, Beadle county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Tuesday, November 23, 1943
Death details: On February 4, 2020, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Private First Class Robert Donald Jenks, missing from World War II. Private First Class Jenks entered the U.S. Marine Corps from Minnesota and served in Company D, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division. He fought on Betio Island during the U.S. invasion of the Tarawa Atoll where he was killed in action on November 23, 1943, and was buried in Cemetery 33 on the island. Later in the war, Naval Construction Battalions reorganized the cemeteries including Cemetery 33 on Betio, complicating disinterment efforts after the end of hostilities. PFC Jenks was not located or identified after the war. In 2009, the non-profit organization History Flight, Inc. located Cemetery 33 on Betio and in 2019, discovered a burial trench near Cemetery 33 where they recovered remains that they turned over to DPAA. DPAA combined circumstantial evidence and laboratory analyses and identified PFC Jenks from among the remains found in this trench.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency