Promote & Preserve stories of U.S. fallen soldiers/sailors
Eddie Daniel Tamez, age 21, from Galveston, Texas, Galveston county.
Service era: Iraq
Military history: Company D, Brigade Support Battalion, Fort Stewart, Georgia
Date of death: Friday, April 27, 2007
Death details: Hostile; Fallujah, Iraq
Source: Department of Defense, legacy.com, findagrave.com
Travis Wayne Buford, age 23, from Galveston, Texas, Galveston county.
Service era: Iraq
Military history: Company D, 1St Battalion, 9Th Infantry, Fort Carson, Co
Date of death: Friday, February 23, 2007
Death details: Killed by a roadside bomb in Ramadi, Iraq
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times, Galveston County Daily News, findagrave.com
Dennis Wayne Valusek, age 22, from Galveston, Texas, Galveston county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Monday, June 8, 1970
Source: National Archives
Richard Stephen Bovio, age 26, from Galveston, Texas, Galveston county.
Spouse: Suzanna W. Bovio
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Friday, February 27, 1970
Death details: Killed in action in Vietnam.
Source: National Archives, Atlanta Constitution (1970)
Ricardo Serenil, age 23, from Galveston, Texas, Galveston county.
Parents: Jose G. Serenil
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Friday, January 9, 1970
Death details: Killed in action in Vietnam
Source: National Archives, Galveston Daily News (1970)
Justin Green Mills, age 25, from Galveston, Texas, Galveston county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Saturday, November 20, 1943
Death details: On August 19, 2019, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of First Lieutenant Justin Green Mills, missing from World War II. First Lieutenant Mills entered the U.S. Marine Corps from Texas and was a member of Company C, 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division. He was killed in action on November 20, 1943, during the Battle of Tarawa, and his body was recovered and buried at Betio Island. His remains were not identified among those disinterred from the atoll in 1946. In 2014, excavations by the private organization History Flight, Inc. located Cemetery 26 on Betio. In 2015, History Flight returned to Cemetery 26 and uncovered several sets of remains that corresponded the site where 1stLt Mills was buried. The remains were eventually accessioned into a DPAA laboratory in the U.S., where analysts eventually identified some of them as those of 1stLt Mills.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Morris William Skinner, age 24, from Galveston, Texas, Galveston county.
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. Sergeant Morris W. Skinner, who entered the U.S. Marine Corps from Texas, served with Company H, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division. On November 20, 1943, he was killed in action against Japanese forces on Tarawa. Sergeant Skinner was buried on Betio Island in Cemetery #11, but his remains were not located after the war. Today, Sergeant Skinner is memorialized in the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Linald Long Collier from Galveston County Galveston, Texas .
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Sunday, December 7, 1941
Death details: Killed in action
Source: National Archives, Lubbock Morning Avalanche (1942)
Horatio W. Fisher, age 32, from Galveston, Texas, Galveston county.
Service era: World War I
Date of death: Saturday, February 22, 1919
Death details: Died of Disease
Cemetery: Hardy, New Waverly, Texas
Source: Soldiers of the Great War, findagrave.com
Sidney Fisher, age 23, from Galveston, Texas, Galveston county.
Service era: World War I
Date of death: Friday, November 8, 1918
Death details: Died of Disease
Cemetery: Arlington National
Source: Soldiers of the Great War, findagrave.com