Promote & Preserve stories of U.S. fallen soldiers/sailors
Cade M. Wolfe, age 24, from Blue Earth County Mankato, Minnesota .
Date of death: Friday, November 10, 2023
Death details: Killed in a helicopter crash in the Mediterranean Sea during routine flight training.
Source: Department of Defense, Stars and Stripes (2023)
Richard Daniel Wiehr, age 22, from Mankato, Minnesota, Blue Earth county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Sunday, January 21, 1973
Death details: On January 21, 1973, an EKA-3B Skywarrior (bureau number 142634) carrying a crew of three was to make a night catapult launch from the aircraft carrier USS Ranger (CV-61), located in the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of North Vietnam. A malfunction occurred during the launch, causing the Skywarrior to run off the carrier deck at a slow speed. It crashed into the water and sank. An extensive search for the aircraft’s crew was unsuccessful in locating them. All three members of the Skywarrior’s crew remain unaccounted for.
Aviation Electronics Technician Second Class Richard Daniel Wiehr, who joined the U.S. Navy from Minnesota, was a member of Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 130. He was a crew member aboard this Skywarrior when it crashed, and was lost with the aircraft. His remains were not recovered. Today, Petty Officer Wiehr is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Based on all information available, DPAA assessed the individual’s case to be in the analytical category of Non-recoverable.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Donald R. Duchene, age 19, from Minnesota, Blue Earth county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Sunday, August 1, 1943
Death details: Staff Sgt. Donald R. Duchene, 19, of St. Paul, Minnesota, killed during World War II, was accounted for July 8, 2022. In the summer of 1943, Duchene was assigned to the 344th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 98th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force. On Aug. 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator aircraft on which Duchene was serving as the tail gunner was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania. His remains were not identified following the war. The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania. Following the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC), the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel, disinterred all American remains from the Bolovan Cemetery for identification. The AGRC was unable to identify more than 80 unknowns from Bolovan Cemetery, and those remains were permanently interred at Ardennes American Cemetery and Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, both in Belgium. In 2017, DPAA began exhuming unknowns believed to be associated with unaccounted-for airmen from Operation TIDAL WAVE losses. These remains were sent to the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for examination and identification. To identify Duchene’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological and dental analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y chromosome DNA (Y-STR) analysis. Duchene’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Impruneta, Italy, along with others still missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Guy Schweigert from Minnesota, Blue Earth county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Tuesday, September 22, 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, with food and water 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. Staff Sergeant Guy Schweigert joined the U.S. Army Air Forces from Minnesota and served with the 21st Pursuit Squadron, 24th Pursuit Group in the Philippines during World War II. He was captured in Bataan following the American surrender on April 9, 1942, and died of dysentery on September 22, 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 of those recovered from Cabanatuan after the war. Today, Staff Sergeant Schweigert is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Vincent Henry Eberhart, age 20, from Blue Earth County Mankato, Minnesota .
Parents: Clara Eberhart
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Sunday, December 7, 1941
Death details: Killed aboard the USS Arizona
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Quentin John Gifford, age 22, from Blue Earth County Mankato, Minnesota .
Parents: Frank Gifford
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Sunday, December 7, 1941
Death details: Killed aboard the USS Oklahoma. Accounted for July 26, 2017
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Minneapolis Star (1942)