James H. Jr. Martin, age 23, from Collinsville, Illinois.
Service era: Operation Restore Hope (Somalia)
Military history: 10th Mountain Division in Fort Drum, New York
Date of death: Sunday, October 3, 1993
Death details: Killed during a 16 hour fight with supporters of Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. Two U.S. Blackhawk helicopters were brought down
Source: White House Commission on Remembrance, Tulsa World
Randall David Dalton, age 20, from Collinsville, Illinois, Madison county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Saturday, July 24, 1971
Death details: On July 21, 2011, the Defense POW/Missing Person Office (DPMO, now DPAA) announced that the remains of Specialist 4 Randall David Dalton, missing from the Vietnam War, had been identified. Specialist 4 Dalton, who joined the U.S. Army from Illinois, served with the 3rd Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment. On July 24, 1971, he was the door gunner on an OH-6A Cayuse Helicopter with a crew of three that was struck by ground fire and crashed in the Kracheh Province of Cambodia. Spec 4 Dalton and another crew member died in the crash. A search and rescue team managed to evacuate the pilot despite enemy activity in the area, but when the team returned the next day to recover the bodies of the other two crew members, they had disappeared. In 1989, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam returned three boxes of human remains to U.S. custody. However, the forensic technology available at the time was not capable of identifying the remains. In 2011, using modern forensic and DNA analysis, investigators were able to identify Spec 4 Dalton’s remains among those returned.
Cemetery: Memorialized at Jefferson Barracks National, Sunset Hill in Glen Carbon, Illinois
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, findagrave.com
Alvin Lee Evanoff, age 21, from Collinsville, Illinois, Madison county.
Parents: Ruth Freppon
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Sunday, December 6, 1970
Death details: Non-hostile, died while missing in South Vietnam. Died in a helicopter crash.
Source: National Archives, Saint Louis Post Dispatch, Associated Press (1970)