Marvin Lee Ringoen, age 20, from Glenville, Minnesota, Freeborn county.
Parents: Kermit Ringoen
Service era: Vietnam
Schools: Glenview High (1968)
Date of death: Saturday, March 7, 1970
Death details: Hostile, South Vietnam
Source: National Archives, Minneapolis Star (1970)
Steven Lynn Green, age 19, from Albert Lea, Minnesota, Freeborn county.
Service era: Vietnam
Schools: Albert Lea High (1968)
Date of death: Friday, January 2, 1970
Death details: Hostile, South Vietnam
Source: National Archives, Minneapolis Star Tribune (1970)
Barry A. Olson from Albert Lea, Minnesota, Freeborn county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: September 26, 1968
Death details:
Private First Class (PFC) Barry Allen Olson, who joined the U.S. Army from Minnesota, served with Company B, 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. On September 26, 1968, while his unit conducted a tactical movement along Highway 14 in South Vietnam, PFC Olson was riding in an armored personnel carrier (APC) when it was hit by an anti-tank round in the vicinity of grid coordinates BQ 001 372. The round struck close to where PFC Olson was seated, and the blast detonated several boxes of Claymore mines and grenades. Private First Class Olson’s remains could not be recovered following the explosion. After the incident, the Army promoted PFC Olson to the rank of sergeant first class. Today, Sergeant First Class Olson is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Based on all information available, DPAA assessed the individual’s case to be in the analytical category of Non-recoverable.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Harold Kretzer, age 32, from Minnesota, Freeborn county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Sunday, August 1, 1943
Death details: Tech. Sgt. Harold Kretzer, 32, killed during World War II, was accounted for Aug. 23, 2022. In the summer of 1943, Kretzer was assigned to the 66th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 44th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 8th Air Force. On Aug. 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator bomber on which Kretzer was a gunner-engineer was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania. His remains were not identified following the war. The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Dayton C. Hoffarth from Minnesota, Freeborn county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Friday, June 12, 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 Dayton C. Hoffarth joined the U.S. Army from Minnesota and served with the Quartermaster Corps 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 June 12, 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 Hoffarth is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Glaydon Ignatius Iverson, age 24, from Emmons, Minnesota.
Parents: Edwin M. Iverson
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Sunday, December 7, 1941
Death details: Died aboard the USS Oklahoma
Cemetery: Body returned in 2017
Source: National Archives, KAAL