Ronald Scott Owens, age 24, from Vero Beach, Florida, Indian River county.
Service era: War on Terror
Date of death: Thursday, October 12, 2000
Death details: Died aboard the U.S.S. Cole when suicide bombers detonated an explosive-laden boat against the ship’s port side, tearing a 40-by-40-foot hole in the hull and sending seawater gushing into the engineering compartment.
Source: Department of Defense
William Marshall Clark, age 18, from Indian River County Vero Beach, Florida .
Spouse: Linda (Lytz)
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Wednesday, February 23, 1972
Death details: Died in Tripler General Hospital in Honolulu of wounds recieived in combat in January when he was ambushed while walking point on a foot patrol near Saigon.
Source: National Archives, Vero Beach Press Journal (1972)
William Eugene Roller, age 29, from Sebastian, Florida, Indian River county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Monday, September 7, 1970
Death details: Killed in action
Source: National Archives, Assocaited Press (1970)
Robert L. A. Hurst from Florida, Indian River county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Monday, July 27, 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 Robert L. A. Hurst joined the U.S. Army Air Forces from Florida and was a member of the 429th Signal Company in the Philippines during World War II. He was captured on Corregidor Island following the American surrender on May 6, 1942 and died of dysentery and malaria on July 27, 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 Hurst is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Gene Guy Evans from Indian River County Vero Beach, Florida .
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Friday, October 31, 1941
Death details: Died in the sinking of the destoryer USS Reuben James
Source: Los Angeles Times (1941)