Roscoe Sybert, age 38, from Jonesville, Virginia, Lee county.
Parents: Robert P. Sybert
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Tuesday, May 5, 1970
Cemetery: Sybert Family in Lee County, Virginia
Source: Kingsport News (1964), findagrave.com
William F. Cavin, age 18, from Ewing, Virginia, Lee county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Saturday, November 20, 1943
Death details: On April 23, 2018, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Private First Class William F. Cavin, missing from World War II. Private First Class Cavin, who joined the U.S. Marine Corps from West Virginia, served with Company F, 2nd Marine Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division. On November 20, 1943, he was killed during the amphibious assault on Betio Island, as part of the Battle of Tarawa. He was buried in a Marine cemetery on Betio. After the war, some of his remains were recovered, but were unidentified at the time and were buried as unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP). In 2013, the independent investigative group History Flight, in partnership with DPAA, located a burial trench on Betio and recovered additional human remains that matched the set of partial unknowns interred at the NMCP. Using modern forensic techniques, DPAA analysts identified these remains as those of PFC Cavin.
Source: National Archives; Virginia Military Dead database, Library of Virginia Richmond, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
John H. Lawson from Virginia, Lee county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Thursday, August 6, 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 John H. Lawson entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from Virginia and served with the 93rd Bombardment Squadron, 19th Bombardment Group, in the Pacific during World War II. The unit arrived in the Philippines in October 1941 and was stationed at Clark Field on Luzon Island. Two days before the Japanese attack, the 93rd began to move its B-17 Flying Fortresses to Del Monte Air Field on Mindanao Island. When the Japanese attacked the Philippines on December 8, 1941, half of the 93rd Squadron’s B-17s that had not relocated to Del Monte were destroyed on the ground at Clark Field. In late December, the few surviving aircraft were ordered to Australia, while the air crews and ground personnel who remained in the Philippines were ordered to the Bataan Peninsula to fight as infantry. Private First Class Lawson was with his unit when Allied Forces in Bataan surrendered to the Japanese on April 9, 1942, and participated in the Bataan Death March. He was interned in the Cabanatuan Prison Camp in Nueva Ecija Province and died of dysentery on August 6, 1942. 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 Lawson is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Donald Edgar Bays, age 18, from Lee County Jonesville, Virginia .
Parents: Ella B. Bays
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Sunday, December 7, 1941
Death details: Died of wounds; missing in action or buried at sea; Hickam Field, Hawaii
Cemetery: Tablets of the Missing at Honolulu Memorial
Source: National Archives, American Battle Monuments Commission, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Harold Dean Wilder from Virginia, Lee county.
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Unknown
Death details: On July 11, 1950, the U.S. Army’s 21st Infantry Regiment, which had arrived in Korea six days earlier, was placed in defensive positions near the town of Chochiwon, South Korea. The regiment was not at full strength and lacked artillery and anti-tank weapons. That day, they were attacked by North Korean forces and were forced to withdraw to avoid being surrounded, as well as to buy time until they could be reinforced and resupplied. Private First Class Harold Dean Wilder, who joined the U.S. Army from Virginia, served with L Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was captured by enemy forces on July 11 during the delaying actions between Pyongtaek and Chochiwon. He was forced to march to prison camp number 5 on the Yalu River in North Korea, where he died of malnutrition on an unspecified date in February 1951. Although he was buried near the camp, his remains were not identified among those returned to U.S. custody after the ceasefire. Today, Private First Class Wilder is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency