Rodney Lynn Mccandless, age 21, from Camden, Arkansas, Ouachita county.
Service era: Iraq
Military history: Company D, 82D Brigade Support Battalion, Fort Bragg, North Carolina
Date of death: Saturday, April 7, 2007
Death details: Hostile; Zaganiyah, Iraq
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times, legacy.com
Michael Antonio Smith, age 24, from Camden, Arkansas, Ouachita county.
Service era: Iraq
Military history: B Company, 1St Battalion, 153Rd Infantry Regiment, Texarkana, Ar
Date of death: Friday, November 26, 2004
Death details: Died at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., from injuries sustained Nov. 7 when he was attacked by enemy forces using small-arms fire in Baghdad.
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times
Jonathan Marshall Cheatham, age 19, from Camden, Arkansas, Ouachita county.
Service era: Iraq
Military history: 489 Engineer Battalion, North Little Rock, Arkansas
Date of death: Saturday, July 26, 2003
Death details: Hostile; Dogwood, Iraq
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times
Gerald Eugene Booth Hamm, age 23, from Camden, Arkansas, Ouachita 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: Memorial Park, Camden
Source: National Archives, virtualwall.org
William Henderson Mason, age 43, from Camden, Arkansas, Ouachita county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Wednesday, May 22, 1968
Death details: On March 13, 2009, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Colonel William Henderson Mason, missing from the Vietnam War. Colonel Mason joined the U.S. Air Force from Arkansas and was a member of the 41st Tactical Airlift Squadron. On May 22, 1968, he was aircraft commander aboard a C-130 Hercules with a crew of nine on a nighttime flare mission over northern Salavan Province, Laos. The Hercules crashed during its flight, killing all nine of its crew. Immediate search efforts could not be conducted due to heavy anti-aircraft fire in the area. Between 1989 and 2008, joint Laotian, Vietnamese, and American search teams conducted field investigations and excavations in the Quang Tri Province of Vietnam, recovering aircraft wreckage and human remains. In 2009, modern forensic techniques were able to individually identify the remains of the crew of the Hercules, including those of Col Mason.
Cemetery: Arlington National
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, findagrave.com
Charles Eugene Elmore, age 24, from Prescott, Arkansas, Ouachita county.
Parents: Florence N. Johnson
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Wednesday, November 29, 1950
Death details: On November 29, 1950, men from Company G of the U.S. 1st Marine Regiment, MP Company and Tank Company, 1st Marine Division, Company B and elements of Company D of the 31st Infantry Regiment, Headquarters Company of the X Corps, and Royal Marines from Number 41 Independent Commando Battalion were sent north from Koto-ri to open the main supply route to Hagaru-ri and resupply and reinforce Allied troops that had been surrounded near the Chosin Reservoir. The group, known as Task Force Drysdale, set out with tanks and other vehicles in the lead and rear, and initially only met light resistance from Chinese Communist Forces (CCF). As attacks increased in ferocity, the group became fragmented as the CCF managed to establish road blocks that further split the task force. Soon, the CCF blew a bridge and halted the convoy altogether. The Royal Marines and most of Company G were north of the bridge at this time and were able to continue to Hagaru-ri. Near the south end of the convoy, a destroyed truck blocked the road. The tanks and troops south of the destroyed truck fought as long as possible before ultimately returning to Koto-ri on November 30. The men between the blown bridge and the destroyed truck, however, were trapped, and subjected to several mortar barrages before CCF moved into hand-to-hand combat range. Fighting raged there until the morning of November 30, when the survivors were forced to surrender. Over 300 troops were wounded, captured, or died during the action. Master Sergeant Charles Eugene Elmore, who joined the U.S. Army from Arkansas, served with B Company, 1st Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. He was killed in action north of Koto-ri on November 30, 1950. Chaotic conditions on the battlefield prevented the immediate recovered of his remains, and U.S. military forces evacuated the region shortly thereafter, never to return. Master Sergeant Elmore’s remains were not identified among those returned to U.S. custody after the ceasefire, and he is still unaccounted-for. Today, Master Sergeant Elmore is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Memphis Commercial Appeal (1951)