Bridgeport Illinois

Smith, Harold Victor
Air Force Colonel

Harold Victor Smith from Bridgeport, Illinois, Lawrence county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Tuesday, March 7, 1966
Death details: On April 14, 2000, Joint Task Force-Full Accounting (JTF-FA, now DPAA) identified the remains of Colonel Harold Victor Smith, missing from the Vietnam War.

Colonel Smith entered the U.S. Air Force from Illinois and was a member of the 469th Tactical Fighter Squadron. On March 7, 1966, he was the pilot of an F-105D Thunderchief (serial number 62-4410) on a combat mission over North Vietnam. While engaged with an enemy target, Col Smith’s aircraft was shot down and he was killed, but recovery efforts for his remains were unsuccessful. In 1998, the U.S. recovered remains that in 2000, were identified as those of Col Smith.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

Heath, Leslie Ray
Army Corporal

Leslie Ray Heath, age 18, from Bridgeport, Illinois, Lawrence county.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Saturday, June 30, 1951
Death details: On May 9, 2005, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC, now DPAA) identified the remains of Corporal Leslie Ray Heath, missing from the Korean War. Corporal Heath joined the U.S. Army from Illinois and was a member of A Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Regimental Combat Team, 24th Infantry Division. On April 23, 1951, he was captured by Chinese Communist Forces, along with eighty other members of his unit. CPL Heath was taken to the Suan POW Camp Complex in North Korea, where he died in June 1951. He was not identified among remains returned to U.S. custody immediately after the conflict’s ceasefire. On July 16, 1993, the North Korean government returned seventeen boxes of remains from the Korean War to the U.S. One of these boxes contained several sets of remains and two of CPL Heath’s identification tags. Forensic analysis eventually identified CPL Heath from among these remains. Corporal Heath is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Cemetery: Buried in 2005 in Bridgeport, Illinois

Source: Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Douglas County Herald (2005)

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