Robert E Bolt, age 19, from Champaign, Illinois, Champaign county.
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Thursday, May 9, 1957
Death details: Killed in a car accident in Germany
Source: Belleville News Democrat (1957)
Robert E Bolt, age 19, from Champaign, Illinois, Champaign county.
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Thursday, May 9, 1957
Death details: Killed in a car accident in Germany
Source: Belleville News Democrat (1957)
Myron E. Williams from Illinois, Champaign county.
Service era: World War II
Military history: 12 Infantry 4 Division
Date of death: Saturday, November 17, 1945
Death details: On July 13, 2022, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Private Myron E. Williams, missing from World War II. Private Myron E. Williams entered the U.S. Army from Illinois and was a member of Company L, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. On November 16, 1944, he was killed in action near Lendersdorf, Germany, during the Battle of Hürtgen Forest. He was last seen entering a heavily mined wooded area that also came under heavy artillery fire. Private Williams’s remains were not recovered or identified following the war. In 1947, American Graves Registration Command retrieved a set of remains that were found southwest of Hürtgen near a German mine belt. The remains could not be identified at the time and were buried an unknown remains at the Ardennes American Cemetery in Neupré, Belgium. Eventually, a DPAA historian studied the available historical records surrounding this unknown set of remains. They recommended that the remains be disinterred for analysis using modern forensic techniques, and provided a list of potential candidates that the remains could be associated with. The remains were accessioned into the DPAA laboratory, where they were identified as those of Private Williams.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Lawrence E. Jenkins, age 28, from Champaign County Rantoul, Illinois .
Parents: Jess O. Jenkins
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Friday, June 16, 1944
Death details: Killed when his plane crashed into Big Lake near Omaha, Nebraska. The plane was on a routine flight from the Lincoln, Nebraska, Army Air Base.
Source: National Archives, Hutchinson News Herald (1944), Associated Press (1944)
John Eddy Gillen, age 20, from Champaign, Illinois, Champaign county.
Parents: Anna B. Gillen
Service era: World War II
Schools: Champaign High graduate
Military history: Company D, 1st battalion, 6th Marines
Date of death: Monday, November 22, 1943
Death details: On April 16, 2020, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Private First Class John Eddy Gillen, missing from World War II. Private First Class Gillen, who entered the U.S. Marine Corps from Illinois, served with Company D, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division. He was killed in action during the Battle of Tarawa on November 22, 1943, during the assault on the Japanese-controlled Betio Island of Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands. His body was recovered at the time and was buried in Cemetery 33 on Betio Island, but after the war his remains could not be identified among those disinterred from the island’s grave sites. In 2019, History Flight, in partnership with DPAA, excavated a burial site associated with Cemetery 33 on Betio Island and recovered remains of U.S. Marines who fought during the Battle of Tarawa. Advances in forensic techniques led to the identification of PFC Gillen from among these remains.
Cemetery: Buried in Champaign
Source: National Archives, New Gazette, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Albert Luther Williams, age 19, from Champaign, Illinois, Champaign county.
Parents: Hershel Williams
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Sunday, December 7, 1941
Death details: Killed aboard the USS Oklahoma
Source: Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency