Otie Joseph McVey, age 53, from Oak Hill, West Virginia, Fayette county.
Service era: Iraq
Military history: 706Th Transportation Company, 475 Quartermaster Group, Kenton, Oh
Date of death: Sunday, November 7, 2004
Death details: Died in Beaver, West Virginia after being medically evacuated from Baghdad on September 23, 2004 for treatment of a non-combat related illness
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times
James Edward Lockett, age 33, from Ansted, West Virginia, Fayette county.
Parents: Margaret Lockett
Service era: Vietnam
Military history: Bronze Star and Purple Heart
Date of death: Monday, April 20, 1970
Death details: Killed in Vietnam
Source: National Archives, Beckley Post Herald (1970)
Darrell Wesley Scarbrough, age 20, from Fayetteville, West Virginia, Fayette county.
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Thursday, November 2, 1950
Death details: On August 9, 2006, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC, now DPAA) identified the remains of Corporal Darrell Wesley Scarbrough, missing from the Korean War. Corporal Scarbrough entered the U.S. Army from West Virginia and served with Company D, 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. On November 2, 1950, members of Company D were occupying a defensive position near Unsan, North Korea, north of a bend in the Kuryong River known as the “Camel’s Head Bend.” That day, elements of the Chinese Communist Forces struck the 1st Cavalry Division’s lines, collapsing the perimeter and forcing a withdrawal. CPL Scarbrough did not survive this combat, though the details surrounding his loss are not recorded and his body was not recovered at the time. In 2000, a joint U.S./North Korean investigative team interviewed a farmer living in the vicinity of Unsan who told the team that while doing land reclamation work, he uncovered human remains he believed were those of U.S. soldiers. The team excavated the burial site and uncovered human remains, and U.S. analysts identified CPL Scarbrough from these remains.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Hinton Daily News (1950)
Joe Lukie, age 19, from Harvey, West Virginia, Fayette county.
Parents: Julie Lukie
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Saturday, November 20, 1943
Death details: On September 5, 2017, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Private First Class Joe Lukie, missing from World War II. Private First Class Lukie joined the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve from West Virginia and was eventually assigned to Company K, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division. He was killed in action on November 20, 1943, during the amphibious assault on Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll, known as the Battle of Tarawa. Records failed to show where he was buried, and he could not be associated with any of the remains recovered from the island during recovery efforts in 1946 by the American Graves Registration Service (AGRS). The AGRS did recover more than ninety sets of unidentifiable remains and interred them as “unknown” remains in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP) in Hawaii. In 2014, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC, a predecessor organization to DPAA) excavated a site known as Cemetery 33 on Betio. Remains recovered during these excavations were turned over to the JPAC laboratory for analysis. In 2016, DPAA received permission to disinter the unknown Tarawa remains from the NMCP. DPAA analysts determined that one of the Tarawa unknowns was associated with remains recovered from Cemetery 33 by JPAC and consolidated the remains into a single accession. These remains were subsequently identified as PFC Lukie.
Cemetery: Oak Hill Cemetery, Fayette County (remains returned in 2018
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Charles Dallas Walker, age 20, from Powellton, West Virginia, Fayette county.
Parents: Leafy Walker
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Saturday, November 20, 1943
Death details: From November 20 through 23, 1943, the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy conducted a large-scale amphibious assault on the Japanese-held atoll of Tarawa as part of Operation Galvanic, the Allied capture of the Gilbert Islands. Located 2,500 miles southwest of Hawaii, Tarawa was a crucial stepping stone in the planned U.S. offensive across the central Pacific toward Japan. The Japanese garrison on Tarawa’s main island of Betio was well-entrenched with hundreds of bunkers and gun positions behind formidable beach obstacles. The first wave of Marines approaching the shore encountered lower-than-expected tides, forcing them to leave their landing craft on the reef and wade the hundreds of yards to the beach under intense enemy fire. The heaviest number of U.S. casualties were suffered during this phase of the landing. Eventually, rising tides allowed U.S. warships to maneuver closer to shore and support the troops with effective naval gunfire. More Marines landed on the second day, launching attacks inland from the beaches and seizing the Japanese airfield on the island. However, the enemy launched vicious counterattacks and two more days of intense fighting were needed to secure Betio. The last enemy strongpoints were taken on the morning of November 23. The fighting on Betio cost the Marines nearly 3,000 casualties but enabled U.S. forces to press further across the Pacific and yielded valuable tactical lessons that reduced U.S. losses in future amphibious landings. Private First Class Charles Dallas Walker joined the U.S. Marine Corps from West Virginia and was a member of Company A, 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, which took part in the Battle of Tarawa. On November 20, 1943, he was killed in action on the atoll and was buried in Cemetery #33; however, after the war his remains were not located. He is still unaccounted-for. Today, Private First Class Walker is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Ronald S. Newland from West Virginia, Fayette county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Tuesday, June 30, 1942
Death details: Following the Allied surrender on the Bataan Peninsula on April 9, 1942, the Japanese began the forcible transfer of American and Filipino prisoners of war to various prison camps in central Luzon, at the northern end of the Philippines. The largest of these camps was the notorious Cabanatuan Prison Camp. At its peak, Cabanatuan held approximately 8,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war that were captured during and after the Fall of Bataan. Camp overcrowding worsened with the arrival of Allied prisoners who had surrendered from Corregidor on May 6, 1942. Conditions at the camp were poor, with food and water extremely limited, leading to widespread malnutrition and outbreaks of malaria and dysentery. By the time the camp was liberated in early 1945, approximately 2,800 Americans had died at Cabanatuan. Prisoners were forced to bury the dead in makeshift communal graves, often completed without records or markers. As a result, identifying and recovering remains interred at Cabanatuan was difficult in the years after the war. Private Ronald S. Newland joined the U.S. Army Air Forces from West Virginia and was a member of Headquarters Squadron, 20th Air Base Group in the Philippines during World War II. He was captured in Bataan following the American surrender on April 9, 1942, and died of cerebral malaria on June 30, 1942, at the Cabanatuan Prison Camp in Nueva Ecija Province. He was buried in a communal grave in the camp cemetery along with other deceased American POWs; however, his remains could not be associated with any remains recovered from Cabanatuan after the war. Today, Private Newland is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Harold Hamner Beasley, age 21, from Fayette County Prince, West Virginia .
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Friday, October 31, 1941
Death details: Died in the sinking of the destoryer USS Reuben James
Source: Los Angeles Times (1941)
Kenneth Cecil Neely, age 18, from Fayette County Curnard, West Virginia .
Parents: Preceded in death by Carl and Minnie Neely
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Friday, October 31, 1941
Death details: Died in the sinking of the destoryer USS Reuben James
Source: Los Angeles Times (1941), Hinton Daily News (1941)
Henry L. Goddard, age 26, from Fayette County Maywood, West Virginia .
Service era: World War I
Date of death: Wednesday, October 2, 1918
Death details: Died of disease
Source: Soldiers of the Great War
Thomas Hampton Rhodes, age 29, from Fayette County West Virginia.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Unknown
Death details: On December 13, 1944, Japanese forces in the Philippines began the transfer of 1,621 Allied prisoners of war (POWs) to Japan. The POWs were to make the journey aboard transport ships whose harsh conditions and extreme overcrowding led survivors to refer to them as “Hell Ships.” The ships also lacked markings that would distinguish them from any other military target, causing some of them to be attacked by Allied forces who could not identify them as POW transports. On December 14, 1944, Allied aircraft attacked the first ship, the Oryoku Maru, in Subic Bay in the Philippines, killing many Allied POWs who became lost in the water, sank with the ship, or were washed ashore. Survivors of the bombing were put aboard two other ships, the Enoura Maru and the Brazil Maru, to continue on to Japan. During the journey, while anchored in Takao Harbor, Formosa (present-day Taiwan), the Enoura Maru was attacked by Allied aircraft from the USS Hornet (CV-8), killing Allied POWs who were lost in the water, on board the ship, or on the nearby shore. Survivors of the Enoura Maru bombing were loaded onto the Brazil Maru, and reached Japan on January 30, 1945. As a result of these incidents, Allied POWs were lost in the Philippines, at sea between the Philippines and Taiwan, while anchored in Taiwan, at sea between Taiwan and Japan, and in Japan. The attacks on these POW transports ultimately resulted in a series of death notifications from the Japanese government through the International Red Cross (IRC), and some casualties were given up to five different dates of death at various locations during the transfer. Witness accounts from surviving POWs offer detailed information for a handful of casualties, but the specific dates of loss and/or last-known locations for many of these POWs are based on the most recent reported date of death. 1st Lt. Thomas Hampton Rhodes entered the U.S. Army from West Virginia and was a member of the Quartermaster Corps. He was stationed in the Philippines during World War II and was taken as a POW following the Japanese invasion of the islands. Rhodes was interned in the islands until December 1944, when he was put aboard the Oryoku Maru for transport to Japan. Records indicate that he survived the attack on the Oryoku Maru and was transferred to the Enoura Maru. Rhodes died while aboard the Enoura Maru on January 12, 1945, due to wounds he suffered in the attack on the ship. These reports often involve information solely furnished by enemy governments, with some casualties given multiple dates of death. Future research may determine these reports were inaccurate. Attempts to locate and identify Rhodes’s remains following the end of hostilities were unsuccessful, and he is still unaccounted-for. Today, Rhodes is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Raleigh Register (1946)