Promote & Preserve stories of U.S. fallen soldiers/sailors
Rusten Smith, age 32, from Rolla, Missouri, Phelps county.
Service era: Post war on terror
Date of death: Wednesday, March 29, 2023
Death details: Among nine killed in a mid-air collision involving two Black Hawk helicopters near Fort Campbell, Kentucky during a routine training mission.
Source: CBS News
Richard L. III McNulty, age 22, from Rolla, Missouri, Phelps county.
Spouse: Hannah
Children: Ella
Service era: Afghanistan
Schools: Rolla High graduate
Military history: 425th Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska.
Date of death: Sunday, May 13, 2012
Death details: Died in Bowri Tana, Afghanistan when the enemy attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device. Sgt. Brian L. Walker was also killed.
Source: Department of Defense, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division Facebook page, Military Times
Bradley L. Melton, age 29, from Rolla, Missouri, Phelps county.
Service era: Afghanistan
Military history: Brigade Troops Battalion, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Wainwright, Anchorage, Alaska.
Date of death: Monday, May 16, 2011
Death details: Died of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device in Zabul Province, Afghanistan. Killed were Staff Sgt. David D. Self, Spc. Bradley L. Melton, Pvt. Lamarol J. Tucker, Pvt. Cheizray Pressley.
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times
Peter Claus Behrens, age 26, from Newburg, Missouri, Phelps county.
Parents: William F. Behrens
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Friday, December 4, 1970
Death details: Non-hostile in South Vietnam.
Source: National Archives, Associated Press (1970)
Sidney Lee Grissom, age 28, from Newburgh, Missouri, Phelps county.
Spouse: Suzanne A. Grissom
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Friday, March 16, 1962
Death details: Among 93 soldiers aboard a transport plane on a “secret mission” to Vietnam. Wreaths Across America in 2021: “Very little is known about what happened to the plane and its passengers, and due to the circumstance surrounding this mission, the names of those lost have not yet been added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C.”
Cemetery: A memorial honoring the lives lost was dedicated in 2021 in Columbia Falls, Maine
Source: Atlanta Counstitution (1962), MauiNow (2021), UPI (1962)
Wayne Eugene Harris, age 23, from Rolla, Missouri, Phelps county.
Parents: Katherine Harris
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Thursday, November 2, 1950
Death details: During the last week of October 1950, Republic of Korea (ROK) Army forces under the control of the U.S. Eighth Army were advancing deep in North Korean territory, approaching the Yalu River on the Chinese-Korean border. Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) struck back in a surprise attack, engaging the ROK 1st and 6th Divisions near Unsan, some sixty miles north of Pyongyang. The U.S. 1st Cavalry Division, with the 8th Cavalry Regiment in the lead, was rushed forward to reinforce the ROK units in the Unsan area. On November 1, the regiment’s 1st Battalion took up positions north of Unsan, while the 2nd Battalion moved to guard the Nammyon River valley west of town, and the 3rd Battalion was placed in reserve at the valley’s southern end. Sergeant First Class Wayne E. Harris, who joined the U.S. Army from Michigan, was a member of Company C of the 8th Engineer Combat Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division. On November 1, the 8th Engineer Battalion was assigned to the 8th Cavalry Regiment, positioned near Unsan. The 8th Cavalry Regiment was cut off from its allies during a CCF surprise attack on November 1. Despite fierce resistance, some of the U.S. forces in the area were overrun by nightfall, forcing a withdrawal. The retreat was complicated by the heavy Chinese presence in the area. It was during this confusing withdrawal that SFC Harris went missing, and he is thought to have been killed during the moving battle on November 2. His remains were not recovered, and could not be identified among those that North Korean officials returned to U.S. custody following the conflict’s ceasefire. Today, Sergeant First Class Harris is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Kansas City Star (1954)
Ora A. Macormic from Missouri, Phelps county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Monday, July 20, 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 First Class Ora A. Macormic entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from Missouri and served with the 7th Chemical Company 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 20, 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 First Class Macormic is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
James Monroe Blake, age 20, from Phelps County Rolla, Missouri .
Parents: Harmond M. Blake
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Sunday, December 7, 1941
Death details: Killed aboard the USS Arizona. Remains not recovered.
Cemetery: Honolulu Memorial
Source: National Archives, American Battle Monuments Commission