Promote & Preserve stories of U.S. fallen soldiers/sailors
Brett Daniel Swank, age 21, from Northumberland, Pennsylvania, Northumberland county.
Service era: Iraq – Operation Iraqi Freedom
Military history: A Company, 1st Battalion, 509th Infantry, (1st Cavalry Division), Fort Polk, La
Date of death: Monday, January 24, 2005
Death details: Hostile, died in Baghdad, Iraq
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times
Dale Thomas Lloyd, age 22, from Watsontown, Pennsylvania, Northumberland county.
Service era: Iraq – Operation Iraqi Freedom
Military history: B Company, 1st Battalion, 32d Infantry Division, Fort Drum, Ny 13602
Date of death: Monday, July 19, 2004
Death details: Hostile, died in Baghdad, Iraq
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times
Zachariah Wesley Long, age 20, from Milton, Pennsylvania, Northumberland county.
Service era: Iraq – Operation Iraqi Freedom
Military history: Company D 519th Military Intelligence Batallion, Fort Bragg, North Carolina
Date of death: Friday, May 30, 2003
Death details: Mosul, Iraq
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times
Harry Luther Bucher, age 34, from Northumberland, Pennsylvania, Northumberland county.
Service era: Vietnam
Schools: Northumberland High graduate
Date of death: Saturday, May 9, 1970
Death details: He was making repairs to a vehicle in South Vietnam when it exploded and he was fatally struck in the head by debris, non-hostile. His brother Sgt. John Bucher, 25, died May 7, 1945 while serving on Okinawa during World War II.
Source: National Archives, Daily Item (1970)
Joseph Stephen Saukaitis, age 20, from Kulpmont, Pennsylvania, Northumberland county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Monday, March 16, 1970
Death details: Killed in Vietnam when a Navy EC121 spy plane with 31 crew aboard crashed into a hanger and started on fire.
Source: National Archives, UPI (1970), Associated Press (1970)
Warren Elias Heim from Pennsylvania, Northumberland county.
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Sunday, July 16, 1950
Death details: On the evening of July 15, 1950, the U.S. Army’s 19th Infantry Regiment held defensive positions along the south bank of the Kum River. As dusk approached, North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) tanks appeared on the opposite shore and began firing on the U.S. positions. Although U.S. troops repulsed the attacks that evening, the next morning the NKPA crossed the river and launched a major attack against the 19th Regiment. As the regiment began withdrawing south to Taejon, the North Koreans pushed deep into their defensive lines and set up a roadblock en route to Taejon. When retreating American convoys could not break through the roadblock, soldiers were forced to leave the road and attempt to make their way in small groups across the countryside. Of the 900 soldiers in the 19th Infantry when the Battle of Kum River started, only 434 made it to friendly lines. Private First Class Warren Elias Heim entered the U.S. Army from Pennsylvania and served with Company D, 1st Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. On July 16, he was captured during one of the many rear-guard actions in the Battle of Kum River. He was forced on the Tiger March to the Apex prison camps on the south bank of the Yalu River. PFC Heim was shot by the guards on November 8, during the last stages of this march somewhere between the villages of An-dong and Kaeyambol, and was buried at a site referred to as Chungang. His remains have not been identified among those returned to U.S, custody.Today, Private First Class Heim is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
John S. Clark from Pennsylvania, Northumberland county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Sunday, July 5, 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 S. Clark joined the U.S. Army from Pennsylvania and was a member of the 1st Battalion of the 31st Infantry Regiment in the Philippines during World War II. He was captured in Bataan following the American surrender and died of dysentery on July 5, 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 Clark is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Albert Charles Berkanski, age 19, from Northumberland County Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania .
Parents: Michael Berkanski
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Sunday, December 7, 1941
Death details: Killed aboard the USS Arizona. Remains not recovered.
Cemetery: Tablets of the Missing at Honolulu Memorial
Source: National Archives, American Battle Monuments Commission
John S. Fletcher, age 27, from Northumberland, Pennsylvania, Northumberland county.
Service era: World War I
Date of death: Saturday, October 12, 1918
Death details: Killed in action
Cemetery: Riverview in Northumberland
Source: Soldiers of the Great War, findagrave.com
Harry I. Geist from Northumberland County Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania .
Service era: World War I
Date of death: Unknown
Death details: Killed in action
Source: Soldiers of the Great War