Grundy County Tennessee

Schoenmann, Glenn Shely
Army Private 1st class

Glenn Shely Schoenmann, age 20, from Grundy County Tracy City, Tennessee .

Parents: Minnie Schoenmann

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Friday, December 29, 1950
Death details: On December 12, 2012, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC, now DPAA) identified the remains of Private First Class Glenn Shely Schoenmann, missing from the Korean War. Private First Class Schoenmann entered the U.S. Army from Tennessee and was a member of Company M, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, and was attached to the 31st Regimental Combat Team during the Battle of Chosen Reservoir. On December 2, 1950, he was wounded by sniper fire near Hagaru-ri and then was taken as a prisoner of war. He died shortly thereafter due to malnutrition and lack of medical care for his wounds while held in a prisoner of war holding camp at the northern end of the Chosin Reservoir, also known as “Death Valley.” He was buried near the camp, and his remains were not returned to U.S. custody immediately after the war. In 1993, the North Korean government repatriated the remains of several U.S. service members recovered from South Hamgyong Province where the Death Valley camp was located. In 2012, advances in forensic techniques allowed U.S. analysts to identify PFC Schoenmann from among these remains. Private First Class Schoenmann is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. His name is also inscribed on the Korean War Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC, which was updated in 2022 to include the names of the fallen.
Cemetery: Brown’s Chapel Cemetery, Palmer (buried in January 2013)

Source: National Archives, UPI, Jackson Sun (1951)

Thomas, Charles C.
Army Private

Charles C. Thomas from Tennessee, Grundy county.

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Sunday, June 4, 1944
Death details: On May 17, 1944, U.S. and Chinese troops began the siege of Myitkyina, Burma. The town, which was occupied by the Japanese, possessed a strategically vital airstrip that would allow supplies and aerial support to reach troops fighting in difficult jungle terrain of the China-Burma-India Theater. While Chinese units comprised the majority of the ground combat troops, the U.S. Army’s 5307th Composite Unit, also known as Merrill’s Marauders, was also active in the fighting. The Japanese were able to defend the town until August 3, 1944, when their remaining men were ordered to withdraw. Hard fighting, difficult terrain, and the outbreak of disease led to significant casualties among the Chinese and American units that fought to take control of the town. Private Charles C. Thomas entered the U.S. Army from Tennessee and served in the 236th Engineer Combat Battalion. During the fighting in and around Myitkyina, members of the 236th Battalion spent 59 days on the front lines as infantry, in constant contact with the enemy. Private Thomas was killed on June 4, 1944, near the village of Namkwi, Burma. The exact circumstances of his loss are unknown. His remains have not been recovered or identified following the war, and he is still unaccounted-for. Today, Private Thomas is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

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