Juan Manuel Garcia-Schill, age 20, from Grants Pass, Oregon, Josephine county.
Service era: Iraq
Military history: H&S Co, 2D Bn, 7Th Mar, 1St Mar Div, Twentynine Palms, Ca
Date of death: Monday, July 2, 2007
Death details: Hostile; Al Taqaddum, Iraq
Cemetery: Eternal Hills Memorial Gardens, Klamath Falls, Oregon
Source: Department of Defense, findagrave.com
William Norman Jr Jensen, age 21, from Grants Pass, Oregon, Josephine county.
Spouse: Pamela L. Jensen
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Friday, May 22, 1970
Death details: Killed in action in Southeast Asia
Source: National Archives, Associated Press (1970)
Rodney Walter Peters, age 30, from Grants Pass, Oregon, Josephine county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Friday, November 1, 1968
Death details: Among 23 American sailors killed aboard the LST Westchester County when it was ripped open by an enemy mine as she swung at anchor in the My Tho River near Saigon.
Cemetery: Willamette National
Source: National Archives, virtualwall.org
William R. Jr. Laughlin from Oregon, Josephine county.
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Saturday, December 2, 1950
Death details:
On the evening of November 27, 1950, Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) launched a massive attack against the U.S. and United Nations troops stationed in the Chosin Reservoir area in northeast North Korea, resulting in a seventeen-day conflict that became known as the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. At the time of the initial CCF attack, members the U.S. Army’s 31st and 32nd Infantry Regiments were defending the area north of Sinhung-ni, on the east side of the reservoir. The defenders were overwhelmed by the numerically superior CCF, and on December 1, were forced to withdraw to friendly lines at Hagaru-ri. Chinese roadblocks from Sinhung-ni to Hagaru-ri along with the constant enemy fire from the surrounding high ground, made the withdrawal route extremely dangerous. Eventually, the column was broken into separate segments, which the CCF attacked individually. Many men were lost or captured during the moving battle, with survivors reaching friendly lines in Hagaru-ri on December 2 and 3.
Corporal William Reynold Laughlin Jr., who entered the U.S. Army from Oregon, was a member of Company D, 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. Corporal Laughlin was reported missing in action on December 2, at some point during the withdrawal from Sinhung-ni to Hagaru-ri. Specific details regarding his loss are unknown. He was never reported as a prisoner of war, and his remains were not identified among those returned to U.S. custody after the ceasefire. He is still unaccounted-for. Today, Corporal Laughlin is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Burton Edward Burgess, age 33, from Oregon, Josephine county.
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Sunday, September 3, 1950
Death details: On September 3, 1950, the 8th Cavalry Regiment and the 2nd Engineer Battalion, both elements of the 1st Cavalry Division, were holding a defensive line between Tabu-dong and Taegu at the upper end of the Naktong Perimeter. Company F of the 8th Cavalry, defending Hill 448, was attacked by elements of North Korea’s 13th Infantry Division and forced to retreat to Hill 449, defended by Company G of the 8th Cavalry. The 8th Cavalry Regiment found itself cut off from its supply train and withdrew from the area to keep from being surrounded by the enemy. Upon reaching the village of Tabu-dong, members of Companies D and E of the 8th Cavalry became involved in hut-to-hut fighting before they could retreat. Meanwhile, elements of the 2nd Engineer Battalion, which had been ordered to take and hold Hill 755, were also forced to withdraw. United States forces did not re-take this territory until September 21, 1950. Private First Class James Lester Bright, who joined the U.S. Army from South Carolina, served with F Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. He was reported missing in action on September 3, 1950. No one witnessed PFC Bright’s death, and evidence indicates he was not held as a prisoner of war. His remains have not been recovered. Today, Private First Class Bright is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Gordon N. Larson from Oregon, Josephine county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Saturday, November 14, 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 Gordon N. Larson entered the U.S. Army from Washington and served with Battery B of the 59th Coast Artillery Regiment in the Philippines during World War II. He was captured in Bataan following the American surrender on April 9, 1942, and died of beriberi on November 14, 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 Larson is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency