Neshoba County Mississippi

Cates, James Gerald
Army Sergeant 1st class

James Gerald Cates, age 29, from Mississippi, Neshoba county.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Sunday, December 3, 1950
Death details: On May 31, 2019, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) accounted for Master Sergeant James Gerald Cates, missing from the Korean War. Master Sergeant Cates, who entered the U.S. Army from Georgia, was a member of I Company, 3rd Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. On December 3, 1950, he was reported missing in action as a result of enemy combat actions as his unit withdrew from the eastern side of the Chosin Reservoir to Hagaru-ri, North Korea. MSG Cates was never reported to be a prisoner of war, and remained unaccounted-for following the incident. In 1954, as part of the exchange of war dead known as Operation GLORY, the North Korean government returned a set of remains recovered from isolated burial sites east of the Chosin Reservoir. One set of these remains that could not be identified at the time was renames Unknown X-15903 and interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii. In 2013, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC, a predecessor organization to DPAA) disinterred X-15903 for re-examination. Advances in forensic techniques eventually allowed these unknown remains to be identified as those of MSG Cates. Master Sergeant Cates is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

Ross, Edwin E.
Army Technician 5

Edwin E. Ross, age 24, from Mississippi, Neshoba 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. Technician Fifth Grade Edwin E. Ross joined the U.S. Army Air Forces from Mississippi and was a member of the 17th Bombardment Squadron, 27th Bombardment Group in the Philippines during World War II. He was captured in Bataan following the American surrender on April 9, 1942, and died of malaria on July 27, 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, Technician Fifth Grade Ross 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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