Donnie R. Holland, age 42, from Bastrop, Louisiana, Morehouse county.
Children: Five children
Service era: Gulf War
Date of death: Friday, January 18, 1991
Death details: F-15 he was in was shot down over Iraq. Originally listed as missing in action and changed March 22, 1991.
Source: White House Commission on Remembrance, Gulf War Chronicles
James Wayne Gates, age 32, from Morehouse County Mer Rouge, Louisiana .
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Wednesday, April 6, 1966
Death details: On April 6, 1966, an OV-1A Mohawk (tail number 63-1377, call sign “Spud 06”) with two crew members departed Phu Bai Airfield as second in a two-plane reconnaissance mission over Laos. While on the mission, enemy ground fire hit both of the aircraft, forcing the crews to bail out over Laos. Radio contact was established with both crews, and two forward air controllers (FACs) sent search and rescue helicopters to the loss area. Before rescue teams reached the survivors, the crew of the number two Mohawk radioed they were surrounded by hostile forces and then radio contact was lost. However, the SAR aircraft rescued the crew of the lead aircraft. The crew members from the number two Mohawk were not recovered. Captain James Wayne Gates, who joined the U.S. Army from Louisiana, was a member of the 20th Aviation Detachment, 17th Aviation Group. He was the pilot of this Mohawk when it went down on its mission to Laos on April 6, 1966. He was not seen or heard from again following the Forward Air Controller’s (FAC) loss of radio contact with the downed crew, and he remains unaccounted-for. While carried in the status of missing in action, the U.S. Army promoted CPT Gates to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel (LTC). Today, Lieutenant Colonel Gates is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. His name is also inscribed along with all his fallen comrades on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Harold Wayne Lowther, age 22, from Morehouse County Bastrop, Louisiana .
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Tuesday, April 5, 1966
Death details: Killed in action in Vietnam
Cemetery: Christ Church
Source: National Archives, News Star (1966)
William P. Butler from Louisiana, Morehouse county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Sunday, December 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. Technician Fourth Grade William P. Butler entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from Louisiana and served with the 20th Air Base Group in the Philippines during World War II. He was captured in Bataan following the American surrender and died of dysentery and pellagra on December 27, 1942, at the Cabnatuan Prison Camp in Nueva Ecija Province. He was buried in a communal grave in the camp cemetery along with another deceased American POWs; however, his remains could not be associated with any remains recovered from Cabanatuan after the war. Today, Technician Fourth Grade Butler is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Cemetery: Manila American Cemetery
Source: National Archives, American Battle Monuments Commission, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Richard Leon Watson, age 20, from Bonita, Louisiana, Morehouse county.
Service era: World War II
Military history: Uss Oklahoma; United States Navy
Date of death: Sunday, December 7, 1941. Killed aboard the USS Oklahoma. Accounted for August 14, 2018.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency