Thomas Walter Christensen, age 42, from Atlantic Mine, Michigan, Houghton county.
Parents: Thomas Christensen
Service era: Iraq
Military history: 652Nd Engineer Battalion, Ellsworth Usarc, Ellsworth, Wi 54011
Date of death: Thursday, December 25, 2003
Death details: Hostile – mortar attack on his living quarters; Balad, Iraq
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times
Paul Joseph Johnson, age 29, from Calumet, Michigan, Houghton county.
Service era: Iraq
Military history: Company A 1St Bn 505Th Parachute Infantry Regiment, Fort Bragg, Nc 28310
Date of death: Monday, October 20, 2003
Death details: Hostile; Al Fallujah, Iraq
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times
Dale Burton Moilanen, age 24, from Houghton County Hubbell, Michigan .
Parents: Viola J. Moilanen
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Tuesday, February 1, 1972
Death details: Hostile, killed, South Vietnam
Source: National Archives, UPI (1972)
John Paul Musich, age 20, from Calumet, Michigan, Houghton county.
Parents: Joseph Musich
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Friday, October 30, 1970
Death details: Hostile, killed, South Vietnam
Source: National Archives, Fort Worth Star Telegram (1970)
Philip Gordon Onkalo, age 19, from Baltic, Michigan.
Service era: Vietnam
Military history: 35th Infantry Regiment
Date of death: August 5, 1967
Death details: Bronze Star citation: For heroism in connection with military operations against an armed hostile force in the Republic of Vietnam. On 5 August 1967 Private First Class Onkalo distinguished himself while serving as a Rifleman in Company A, First Battalion, 35th Infantry; on a search and destroy operation near Duc Pho. As he was about to follow the point man through an opening in a hedgerow, Private First Class Onkalo saw that the man had unknowingly stepped on a trip wire connected to an improvised enemy explosive. He recognized that the device was detonated by a time delay mechanism and that he therefore had an opportunity to take cover. Determining instead to keep his fellow soldiers from harm despite the grave danger, Private First Class Onkalo yelled a warning of the imminent explosion to those in the rear and then ran forward through the hedgerow and pushed the lead man to the ground; thrusting him out of the way just as the explosion occurred. He received severe wounds to which he later succumbed, but by his valiant and unselfish action he had saved at least one mans life and kept others from serious injury. Private First Class Onkalos heroism at the cost of his life is in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflects great credit on himself, his unit, and the United States Army.
Cemetery: Mount View Cemetery, South Range
Source: National Archives, 35th Infantry Regiment Association
Marshall Frederick Kipina from Calumet, Michigan, Houghton county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: July 13, 1966
Death details: On February 1, 2018, the Defense POW/MIA Agency (DPAA) announced that the remains of Staff Sergeant Marshall Frederick Kipina, missing from the Vietnam War, have been identified.
Staff Sergeant Kipina, who joined the U.S. Army from Maine, served with the 131st Aviation Company. On July 13, 1966, he was an observer aboard an OV-1C Mohawk that took off from Phu Bai Airfield for a night surveillance mission over Attapu Province, Laos. The aircraft encountered heavy thunderstorms and lost radar and radio contact with its base before crashing in very difficult terrain, killing the crew members. Searches launched after it failed to return to base were unsuccessful, and the crash site was not located until the 1990s. A series of excavations finally located human remains at the site, and DPAA scientists used DNA analysis to identify SSG Kipina’s remains.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Alvin Einart Laurn from Houghton County Hancock, Michigan .
Parents: Charles Laurn
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Wednesday, October 25, 1944
Death details: Killed in the sinking of the USS Gambier Bay during the Battle of Leyte.
Source: National Archives
Robert D. Train from Michigan, Houghton county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Wednesday, June 10, 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. Sergeant Robert D. Train joined the U.S. Army Air Forces from Michigan and was a member of the 17th Pursuit Squadron, 24th Pursuit 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 June 10, 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, Sergeant Train is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Frederick Joseph Bourgeois from Houghton County Calumet, Michigan .
Parents: Walter Joseph Bourgeois
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Sunday, March 1, 1942
Death details: Killed aboard the USS Houston when the ship was attacked traveling from Batavia to Java.
Cemetery: Manila American Cemetery
Source: National Archives, American Battle Monuments Commission, USSHouston.org
William Michael Finnegan, age 44, from Dollar Bay, Michigan, Houghton county.
Spouse: Married
Service era: World War II
Date of death: December 7, 1941. Killed aboard the USS Oklahoma, Accounted for December 21, 2015
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency