Promote & Preserve stories of U.S. fallen soldiers/sailors
Ronald A. Grider, age 30, from Brighton, Illinois, Jersey county.
Spouse: Brittany Reed (married in March 2010)
Children: Daughter, 4
Service era: Afghanistan
Military history: U.S. Army Special Operations Command, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Date of death: Saturday, September 18, 2010
Death details: Died in Kunduz Province, Afghanistan of wounds suffered when he was struck by machine gun fire.
Source: Department of Defense, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Military Times
Christopher Ward Belchik, age 30, from Brighton, Illinois, Jersey county.
Service era: Iraq
Military history: E Co, 2D Bn, 2D Mar, 1St Mar Div, Camp Pendleton, Ca
Date of death: Sunday, August 22, 2004
Death details: Hostile; Babil Province, Iraq
Source: Department of Defense, St. Louis Post Dispatch
Val Gregory Meyer, age 23, from Brighton, Illinois, Jersey county.
Parents: Troy Meyer
Children: Van
Service era: Vietnam
Schools: Southwestern High, West Kentucky University, Western Illinois University
Military history: Green Berets
Date of death: Tuesday, April 21, 1970
Death details: Hostile, died from wounds in South Vietnam
Source: National Archives, Alton Evening Telegraph (1970)
Aaron Lee Darr, age 22, from Elsah, Illinois, Jersey county.
Parents: Mildred Darr and preceded in death by Glenn Darr
Service era: Vietnam
Schools: Jersey Community High (1967)
Date of death: Thursday, March 12, 1970
Death details: Non-hostile in South Vietnam
Source: National Archives, Alton Evening Telegraph (1970)
Charles A. Kaneen from Illinois, Jersey county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Tuesday, June 30, 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. Staff Sergeant Charles A. Kaneen entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from Illinois and served with the 21st Pursuit Squadron, 24th Pursuit Group in the Philippines during World War II. He was captured in Bataan following the American surrender and died of malaria and dysentery on June 30, 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, Staff Sergeant Kaneen is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
John Donald Drainer from Jersey County Godfrey, Illinois .
Parents: Zita Drainer
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Unknown
Death details: By mid-November 1950, U.S. and Allied forces had advanced to within approximately sixty miles of the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and China. On November 25, approximately 300,000 Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) “volunteers” suddenly and fiercely counterattacked after crossing the Yalu. The 2nd Infantry Division, located the farthest north of units at the Chongchon River, could not halt the CCF advance and was ordered to withdraw to defensive positions at Sunchon in the South Pyongan province of North Korea. As the division pulled back from Kunu-ri toward Sunchon, it conducted an intense rearguard action while fighting to break through well-defended roadblocks set up by CCF infiltrators. The withdrawal was not complete until December 1, and the 2nd Infantry Division suffered extremely heavy casualties in the process. Corporal John Donald Drainer, who joined the U.S. Army from Illinois, served with Battery C, 38th Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was captured by enemy forces on November 30, 1950, during his unit’s withdrawal from Kunu-ri to Sunchon. He was marched to a prisoner of war holding camp in the Pukchin-Tarigol Valley, arriving in January 1951, and died there of pneumonia and malnutrition that same month. His remains have not been located, and he was not identified among the remains returned to U.S. custody after the war. Today, Corporal Drainer 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.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Dacatur Daily Review (1953)