Promote & Preserve stories of U.S. fallen soldiers/sailors
Adrian L. Avila, age 19, from Opelika, Alabama, Lee county.
Service era: Iraq
Military history: 1343rd Chemical Company, 151st Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear Battalion, 115th Fires Brigade of the Alabama Army National Guard, Fort Payne, Alabama.
Date of death: Thursday, October 29, 2009
Death details: Died at Khabari Crossing, Kuwait of injuries sustained from a non-combat related accident.
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times
Christopher James Taylor, age 22, from Opelika, Alabama, Lee county.
Service era: Iraq
Military history: Battery B, 1St Battalion, 41St Field Artillery, 3D Id, (Tf Liberty), Fort Stewart, Ga
Date of death: Sunday, July 24, 2005
Death details: Hostile; Balad, Iraq
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times
Bill J. Stelpflug, age 19, from Lee County Auburn, Alabama .
Parents: Peggy and Bill Stelpflug
Service era: Beirut bombings
Date of death: Sunday, October 23, 1983
Death details: Among more than 200 military personnel killed in the terroist bombing of Marine headquarters in Beirut.
Source: White House Commission on Remembrance, Alabama Journal (1983)
Howard Lanier Williamson, age 20, from Opelika, Alabama, Lee county.
Parents: Cornelle Williamson
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Wednesday, June 3, 1970
Death details: Died in Southeast Asia
Source: National Archives, Birmingham Post Herald (1970)
Donnie Stephen Bartlett, age 20, from Opelika, Alabama, Lee county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Wednesday, March 11, 1970
Source: National Archives
Booker T. Heard, age 32, from Lee County Phenix City, Alabama .
Parents: Will Heard
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Thursday, November 30, 1950
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. Sergeant Booker T. Heard, who joined the U.S. Army from Alabama, was a member of B Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He went missing in action on November 30, 1950, during the fighting withdrawal from Kunu-ri, but the exact circumstances surrounding his loss are unknown. He was never reported as a prisoner of war, and his remains were not located or identified following the end of hostilities. Today, Sergeant Heard 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, Birmingham News (1950)
James W. Bunch from Auburn, Alabama, Lee county.
Service era: World War I
Date of death: November 10, 1918
Death details: Died of disease
Cemetery: Mobile National
Source: Soldiers of the Great War, grave marker