Cook county

Stanker, Jared D.
Army Specialist

Jared D. Stanker, age 22, from Evergreen Park, Illinois, Cook county.

Service era: Afghanistan
Military history: 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Washington

Date of death: Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Death details: Died in Arghandab Valley, Afghanistan of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device.

Source: Department of Defense, Military Times

Cuaresma, Sirlou Ciacho
Army Sergeant

Sirlou Ciacho Cuaresma, age 25, from Chicago, Illinois, Cook county.

Service era: Iraq
Military history: 68Th Engineer Company, Fort Hood, Texas

Date of death: Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Death details: Baghdad, Iraq

Source: Department of Defense, Military Times

Widerquist, Thomas Carl
Air Force 1st lieutenant

Thomas Carl Widerquist, age 25, from Morton Grove, Illinois, Cook county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Wednesday, May 3, 1972
Death details: On June 12, 1974, the Central Identification Laboratory-Thailand (CILT, now DPAA) identified the remains of First Lieutenant Thomas Carl Widerquist, missing from the Vietnam War. First Lieutenant Widerquist joined the U.S. Air Force from Illinois and was a member of the 345th Tactical Airlift Squadron, 374th Tactical Airlift Wing. On May 3, 1972, he was a crew member aboard a C-130E Hercules that took off on a resupply mission near An Loc, South Vietnam. The aircraft was shot down during the mission, and 1st Lt Widerquist was killed in the incident. Once fighting in the area had stopped, search and rescue teams recovered the remains of most of the C-130E’s crew; however, 1st Lt Widerquist’s remains could not be individually identified until 1974.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, findagrave.com

Fivelson, Barry Frank
Army Warrant officer

Barry Frank Fivelson from Evanston, Illinois, Cook county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Monday, February 15, 1971
Death details: On December 11, 2000, Joint Task Force-Full Accounting (JTF-FA, now DPAA) identified the remains of Warrant Officer 1 Barry Frank Fivelson, missing from the Vietnam War.

Warrant Officer 1 Fivelson entered the U.S. Army from Illinois and served with the 159th Aviation Battalion, 101st Airborne Division. On February 15, 1971, he was a passenger aboard a CH-47C Chinook (tail number 18506, call sign “Regard 25”) on a combat support/resupply mission over Laos. During the flight, “Regard 25” caught fire, exploded in mid-air, and crashed near the Pon River in Savannakhet Province, Laos. Warrant Officer 1 Fivelson was killed in the crash and his remains could not be recovered at the time. After the war, a series of joint U.S.-Laotian investigative teams located the crash site and recovered human remains, some of which were forensically identified as those of WO1 Fivelson.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

Keller, Jack Elmer
Navy Captain

Jack Elmer Keller, age 36, from Chicago, Illinois, Cook county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: April 21, 1966
Death details:  On April 21, 1966, an A-6A Intruder (bureau number 151798) with two crew members took part in a two-plane night attack mission against an enemy supply and barracks area on the coast of North Vietnam. During the mission, the wingman observed a bright flash from the direction of this Intruder. The wingman then lost contact with this aircraft and it disappeared from friendly radar tracking. A surface-to-air missile (SAM) warning had been sounded earlier, but the wingman had no basis to believe a SAM had been launched. Search and rescue efforts were unable to locate this Intruder or either of its crew members.

Lieutenant Commander Jack Elmer Keller, who entered the U.S. Navy from Illinois, served with Attack Squadron 85. He was the pilot of this Intruder at the time of its loss on April 21, 1966, and he remains unaccounted-for. While carried in the status of missing in action (MIA), the U.S. Navy promoted LCDR Keller to the rank of Captain (CAPT). Today, CAPT Keller is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Cemetery: Memorialized at Jonesboro, Illinois

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, findagrave.com

Back To Top