Polk County Iowa

Bloodsworth, Clarence
Army Private 1st class

Clarence Bloodsworth from Iowa, Polk county.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Thursday, June 11, 1953
Death details: Late at night on June 10, 1953, Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) launched an attack against an important American outpost known as “Outpost Harry,” which commanders had deemed a “major outpost…to be held at all costs.” Following hours of intense bombardment, Chinese infantry attacked the American trench lines in front of the outpost. The CCF succeeded in capturing the trenches but intense hand-to-hand combat kept the CCF from advancing farther. Attacks persisted through the next day and late into June 11. By the morning of June 12, the Chinese forces withdrew. Similar assaults continued on “Outpost Harry” through the next week. Corporal Clarence Eugene Bloodsworth entered the U.S. Army from Iowa and served in Company B, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division. He was killed in action on June 11, 1953, during the CCF assault on “Outpost Harry,” when an enemy grenade detonated near his position. The disposition of his remains, however, is unknown. He was not among those recovered from the battlefield after the action and his remains were not identified following the war. Today, Corporal Bloodsworth is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

Brown, Roy Jr.
Army Private

Roy Jr. Brown, age 22, from Des Moines, Iowa, Polk county.

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Wednesday, December 2, 1942
Death details: On May 13, 2019, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Pvt. Roy Brown Jr., missing from World War II. Brown joined the U.S. Army from Iowa and was a member of Company I, 126th Infantry Regiment, 32nd Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action and presumed dead on December 2, 1942, during an engagement against Japanese forces along the Soputa-Sanananda Track near Buna, New Guinea. on February 2, 1943, Graves Registration personnel recovered a set of unidentified from near Sanananda Road and buried them at the U.S. Temporary Cemetery Soputa #1. The remains could not be individually identified at the time, and were eventually classified as “unidentifiable” and interred at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines. DPAA historians concluded that this set of remains was likely associated with the Buna and Sanananda campaign, prompting its transfer to the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base in May 2017. Analysts were eventually able to identify these remains as those of Brown. On Dec. 2, 1942, Brown was a member of Company I, 126th Infantry Regiment, 32nd Infantry Division, when his unit was forced into intense engagement with Japanese forces in the vicinity of Soputa-Sanananda Track in the Australian Territory of Papua (present-day Papua New Guinea). Brown was reported missing and presumed dead when he could not be accounted for by his unit. On Feb. 2, 1943, the remains of an unidentified American Soldier were interred at the U.S. Temporary Cemetery Sanananda #2. On April 6, 1943, the remains, designated Unknown X-72 were reinterred at Temporary Cemetery #1 at Soputa, then moved them to U.S. Armed Forces Finschhafen #2, where they were redesignated X-1086. In 1947, the American Graves Registration service exhumed approximately 11,000 graves, including X-1086, and sent the remains to the Central Identification Point at the Manila Mausoleum in the Philippines. X-1086 could not be identified and were interred at Fort McKinley (now the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial). In May 2017, Unknown X-1086 was disinterred, and the remains were sent to the DPAA laboratory in Offutt, Nebraska, for analysis. To identify Brown’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

Source: Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

Bruntmyer, Lloyd R.
Army Technician 4

Lloyd R. Bruntmyer, age 22, from Des Moines, Iowa, Polk county.

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Sunday, November 1, 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 Fourth Grade Lloyd R. Bruntmyer entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from Iowa and served with the 7th Material Squadron in the Philippines during World War II. He was captured in Bataan following the American surrender on April 9, 1942, and died of malnourishment on November 1, 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 Fourth Grade Bruntmyer is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.

Source: Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

Granger, Raymond Edward
Navy Fireman 3rd class

Raymond Edward Granger, age 19, from Des Moines, Iowa, Polk county.

Parents: Hazel Granger

Service era: World War II
Schools: East High 91940)

Date of death: Sunday, December 7, 1941
Death details: Killed aboard the USS Arizona. Remains not recovered.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Des Moines Register (1942)

Temple, Monroe
Navy Seaman 1st class

Monroe Temple from Des Moines, Iowa, Polk county.

Parents: James Monroe Temple

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Sunday, December 7, 1941
Death details: Killed aboard the USS Oklahoma. Accounted for November 29, 2016

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Des Moines Register (1942)

West, Ernest Ray
Navy Seaman 1st class

Ernest Ray West, age 22, from Runnells, Iowa, Polk county.

Parents: B. F. West

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Sunday, December 7, 1941
Death details: Killed aboard the USS Oklahoma

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Des Moines Register (1942)

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