Floyd county Georgia

Johnson, Justin Weaver
Army Specialist

Justin Weaver Johnson, age 22, from Rome, Georgia, Floyd county.

Service era: Iraq
Military history: Hhb, 1St Battalion / 82D Field Artillery (1St Cav), Fort Hood, Texas

Date of death: Saturday, April 10, 2004
Death details: Hostile; Baghdad, Iraq

Source: Department of Defense, Military Times

Grier, Joe R.
Army Staff sergeant

Joe R. Grier from Georgia, Floyd county.

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Sunday, August 9, 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. Staff Sergeant Joe R. Grier entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from Georgia and served with the Headquarters Squadron, 27th Bombardment Group in the Philippines during World War II. He was captured in Bataan following the American surrender on April 9, 1942, and died of malaria and dysentery on August 9, 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, Staff Sergeant Grier is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

Robertson, Dewey Earl Jr.
Army Corporal

Dewey Earl Jr. Robertson from Floyd County Rome, Georgia .

Parents: Margaret Clark

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Unknown
Death details: By mid-November 1950, U.S. and Allied forces had advanced to within approximately sixty miles of the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and China. On November 25, approximately 300,000 Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) “volunteers” suddenly and fiercely counterattacked after crossing the Yalu. The 2nd Infantry Division, located the farthest north of units at the Chongchon River, could not halt the CCF advance and was ordered to withdraw to defensive positions at Sunchon in the South Pyongan province of North Korea. As the division pulled back from Kunu-ri toward Sunchon, it conducted an intense rearguard action while fighting to break through well-defended roadblocks set up by CCF infiltrators. The withdrawal was not complete until December 1, and the 2nd Infantry Division suffered extremely heavy casualties in the process. Sergeant Dewey Earl Robertson Jr., who entered the U.S. Army from Georgia, was a member of A Company, 2nd Engineers Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was captured at Kunu-ri on December 1, 1950, at some point during his unit’s attempt to fight through a heavily defended enemy roadblock. A repatriated prisoner of war (POW) reported that SGT Robertson died in February 1951, while being moved to the ‘Mining Camp’ prison facility in the Pukchin-Tarigol valley. He remains unaccounted-for. Today, Sergeant Robertson is memorialized in the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Atlanta Journal (1951)

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