Lincoln County New Mexico

Dale, Chester Donald
Navy Petty officer 2nd class

Chester Donald Dale, age 36, from New Mexico, Lincoln 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: Santa Fe National

Source: National Archives, virtualwall.org

Leslie, Ben F.
Army Private

Ben F. Leslie, age 31, from Lincoln County Captain, New Mexico .

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Tuesday, January 9, 1945
Death details: On February 14, 2025, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Pvt. Ben F. Leslie, missing from World War II. Leslie entered the U.S. Army from New Mexico and served with Battery H, 200th Coast Artillery Regiment in the Philippines. He was captured by enemy forces during the Japanese invasion of the islands in April 1942 and was interned in the Philippines until December 13, 1944, when Japanese forces in the Philippines began the transfer of 1,621 Allied prisoners of war (POWs) to Japan aboard transport ships whose harsh conditions and extreme overcrowding led survivors to refer to them as “Hell Ships.” On December 14, 1944, unaware of the POWs onboard, Allied aircraft attacked the first ship, the Oryoku Maru, in Subic Bay in the Philippines. Survivors of the bombing were put aboard two other ships, the Enoura Maru and the Brazil Maru, to continue on to Japan. During the journey, while anchored in Takao Harbor, Formosa (present-day Taiwan), the Enoura Maru was attacked by Allied aircraft from the USS Hornet (CV-8). The Japanese government reported that Leslie died aboard the Enoura Maru on January 9, 1945. Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel. In May 1946, an AGRC Search and Recovery Team exhumed a mass grave on a beach at Takao, Formosa, recovering 311 bodies. Some of the remains which could not be identified at the time due to severe comingling were buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP) in Honolulu as Unknowns. Between October 2022 and July 2023, DPAA disinterred Unknowns from the NMCP linked to the Enoura Maru. The remains were accessioned into the DPAA Laboratory for further study. The laboratory analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available established an association between one set of these unknown remains and Leslie.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Albuquerque Tribune (9145)

Halladay, Junior Ray
Navy Reserves Machinists mate 3rd class

Junior Ray Halladay from Ruidoso, New Mexico, Lincoln county.

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Monday, December 18, 1944
Death details: He was aboard the destroyer USS Hull as it operated as part of the Fast Carrier Strike Force in the Philippine Sea. On December 17, 1944, the Hull was participating in refueling operations when the ships of its fueling group were engulfed by Typhoon Cobra. The Hull lost its ability to steer amid the enormous waves and began taking on water. The Hull eventually took on too much water to stay afloat and rolled and sank shortly before noon, on December 18. Sixty-two crew members were rescued, but a little more than two-hundred crew members were lost in the sinking.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

Chavez, Oziel
Army Private

Oziel Chavez from New Mexico, Lincoln county.

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Wednesday, August 19, 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 Oziel Chavez joined the U.S. Army in New Mexico and served with 200th Coast Artillery Regiment in the Philippines during World War II. He was captured in Bataan following the American surrender and died of dysentery on August 19, 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 Chavez is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

Torres, George S.
Army Private

George S. Torres, age 31, from New Mexico, Lincoln 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 George S. Torres joined the U.S. Army from New Mexico and was a member of the 200th Coast Artillery Regiment in the Philippines during World War II. He was captured following the Allied surrender and forced on the Bataan Death March before his eventual internment at the Cabanatuan Prison Camp, where he died of dysentery and malaria on July 27, 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 Torres is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

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