Pender County North Carolina

Carver, Ross S.
Marines Lance Corporal

Ross S. Carver, age 21, from Rocky Point, North Carolina, Pender county.

Spouse: Brandy Carver
Children: William, 5 months

Parents: Douglas Carver and Angie Welgatt

Service era: Afghanistan
Schools: Laney High graduate
Military history: 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

Date of death: Friday, September 3, 2010
Death details: Died while conducting combat operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
Cemetery: Pike Creek, Rocky Point

Source: Department of Defense, Star News, Military Times, Legacy

James, Elvin Jr.
Army Private 1st class

Elvin Jr. James, age 20, from Maple Hill, North Carolina, Pender county.

Parents: Elvin James Sr.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Sunday, August 16, 1970

Source: National Archives, Fort Worth Star Telegram (1970)

Ives, Albert Lee
Marines Corporal

Albert Lee Ives, age 24, from Pender County High Point, North Carolina .

Parents: Albert L. Ives Sr.

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Friday, September 22, 1944
Death details: In September 1944, American forces launched Operation STALEMATE II, the invasion on Peleliu, an island in Palau. On Sept. 15, the 1st Marine Division came ashore under enemy fire. The following day, Marines secured the island’s airfield despite taking heavy casualties. The battle for Peleliu lasted another two months, as Marines were forced to clear heavily fortified pockets of Japanese resistance across the island. The 1st Marine Division, reinforced by the 81st Infantry Division, slowly advanced north under nearly constant mortar and artillery fire. The invasion of Peleliu had the highest casualty rate of all the amphibious Pacific Island invasions of World War II. Corporal Albert Lee Ives Jr., who entered the U.S. Marine Corps from Georgia, served with Company B, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, Fleet Marine Forces. On September 22, 1944, CPL Ives was killed in action during an attack near the Five Sisters, north of the airport on Peleliu.​​​ His remains were not recovered at the time of his loss, and he is still unaccounted-for. Today, Corporal Ives is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Charlotte Observer (1945)

Malpass, Marion L.
Army Staff sergeant

Marion L. Malpass from North Carolina, Pender county.

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Wednesday, October 7, 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. Staff Sergeant Marion L. Malpass, who entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from North Carolina, served with the 34th Pursuit Squadron, 24th Pursuit Group in the Philippines during World War II. The 34th was stationed at Del Carmen Field on Luzon Island when the Japanese attacked U.S. military bases in the Pacific in December 1941. After the Japanese destroyed the unit’s aircraft on the ground at Del Carmen, the men of the 34th served as infantry during the Battle of Bataan. When U.S. troops in Bataan surrendered to the Japanese on April 9, 1941, they were forced on the Bataan Death March. They went first to Camp O’Donnell in Tarlac Province and from there to the Cabanatuan Prison Camp in Nueva Ecija, where SSG Malpass died of dysentery on October 7, 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, Staff Sergeant Malpass 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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