Justin Richard Blackwell, age 27, from Paris, Tennessee, Henry county.
Service era: Iraq
Military history: 59Th Military Police Company, 759Th Military Police Battalion, Fort Carson, Co
Date of death: Sunday, August 5, 2007
Death details: Hostile; Baghdad, Iraq
Source: Department of Defense, findagrave.com
William David Spencer, age 20, from Paris, Tennessee, Henry county.
Service era: Iraq
Military history: B Co, 3D Bn, 24Th Mar, (1St Bn, 24Th Mar, Rct-5, 1 Mef Fwd), Nashville, Tn
Date of death: Thursday, December 28, 2006
Death details: Hostile; Fallujah, Iraq
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times
William Commodore Jr. Wood, age 19, from Henry County Paris, Tennessee .
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Saturday, September 2, 1972
Death details: On September 2, 1972, an F-4E Phantom II (tail number 68-0335, call sign “Tufa 02”) with a crew of two departed Takhli Royal Thai Air Force Base as the second aircraft in a flight of two on a combat mission over the Plain of Jars in northern Laos. After “Tufa 02” dropped ordnance on the target and began its pull out, it burst into flames and crashed into the ground near the target. The forward air controller (FAC) also crashed at about the same time, and the crew in the other plane on the mission could not tell whether “Tufa 02” and the FAC collided or whether they were both shot down. They saw two parachutes deploy from “Tufa 02,” and both parachutes appeared to land on the ground but no rescue beepers were detected. The aircraft circled the area and the crew spotted the crash site, but due to enemy activity in the area, a search and rescue effort could not be conducted. Captain William Commodore Wood Jr., who joined the U.S. Air Force from Tennessee, served with the 421st Tactical Fighter Squadron, 366 Tactical Fighter Wing. He was the pilot of “Tufa 02” when it crashed, and his remains were not recovered. Subsequent to the incident, and while carried in the status of missing in action (MIA), the U.S. Air Force promoted Captain Wood to the rank of Major (Maj). Today, Major Wood is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. His name is also inscribed along with all his fallen comrades on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Thomas Stewart McGarry, age 26, from Springville, Tennessee, Henry county.
Parents: Eva B. McGarry and preceded in death by Wilbur J. McGarry
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Tuesday, October 20, 1970
Source: National Archives, Detroit Free Press (1970)
George B. Ford, age 25, from Paris, Tennessee, Henry county.
Service era: Vietnam
Military history: Company B, 26th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division; Purple Heart
Date of death: Friday, January 26, 1968
Cemetery: Fort Donelson National
Source: National Archives, grave marker
Max R. Sloan from Tennessee, Henry county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Sunday, July 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 First Class Max R. Sloan joined the U.S. Army Air Forces from Tennessee and was a member of 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 dysentery on July 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 First Class Sloan is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency