Promote & Preserve stories of U.S. fallen soldiers/sailors
Jae Sik Moon, age 21, from Levittown, Pennsylvania, Bucks county.
Parents: Muichi Choi (April 25, 2006)
Spouse: Young Moon and Ki Moon
Service era: Iraq – Operation Iraqi Freedom
Military history: Company B, 2d Battalion, 12th Infantry, Fort Carson, Co
Date of death: Monday, December 25, 2006
Death details: Hostile, died in Baghdad, Iraq
Source: Department of Defense, Bucks County Courier Times, Military Times
Richard Costelow, age 35, from Morrisville, Pennsylvania, Bucks county.
Service era: War on Terror
Date of death: Thursday, October 12, 2000
Death details: Died aboard the U.S.S. Cole when suicide bombers detonated an explosive-laden boat against the ship’s port side, tearing a 40-by-40-foot hole in the hull and sending seawater gushing into the engineering compartment.
Source: Department of Defense, U.S. Navy
Clifford Dale VanArtsdale, age 18, from Plumsteadville, Pennsylvania, Bucks county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Thursday, May 9, 1968
Death details: Specialist 4 (SP4) Clifford Dale Van Artsdalen entered the U.S. Army from Pennsylvania and was a member of Company D, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 23rd Infantry Division. On May 9, 1968, he was a member of a three-man weapons platoon sent to a forward position in Quang Tin Province, South Vietnam, to provide supporting fire for units in the area. His team came under heavy return fire and an explosion was seen coming from their position. Soon after, the platoon sergeant noticed that SP4 Van Artsdalen had been shot and killed. He ordered other men on the mission to recover SP4 Van Artsdalen’s body; however, the other troops had also been wounded. Their condition, as well as the heavy enemy fire, prevented the recovery of SP4 Van Artsdalen’s remains. Further attempts to recover or locate him was unsuccessful. Today, Specialist 4 Van Artsdalen is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency