Polk County Minnesota

Algaard, Harold Lowell
Army Warrant officer

Harold Lowell Algaard, age 22, from Fosston, Minnesota, Polk county.

Spouse: Judith A. Algaard

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Thursday, March 4, 1971
Death details: On March 4, 1971, a JU-21 LEFT JAB (tail number 18065, call sign “Vanguard 216”) with a crew of five departed Phu Bai Air Base, South Vietnam, on a signal intelligence collection mission over Quang Tri Province. The aircraft’s last radio communication was from a location near the Demilitarized Zone where an enemy artillery regiment was believed to be located and where witnesses saw an aerial explosion. Search and rescue efforts were carried out for two days, but were unsuccessful. Warrant Officer 1 Harold Lowell Algaard entered the U.S. Army from Minnesota and served with the 138th Aviation Company, 224th Aviation Battalion, 509th Radio Research Group. He was the copilot of “Vanguard 216” when it disappeared, and his remains were not recovered. Today, Warrant Officer 1 Algaard is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Cemetery: Memorialized at Kingo in Fosston

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, findagrave.com, Associated Press (1971)

Coulter, Adrian J.
Army Private

Adrian J. Coulter from Minnesota, Polk county.

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Saturday, July 4, 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 and food and water supplied 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 Adrian J. Coulter entered the U.S. Army from Minnesota and served with the 194th Tank Battalion in the Philippines during World War II. He was captured in Bataan following the American surrender and died of malaria on July 4, 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 Coulter is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

Sampson, Sherley Rolland
Navy Reserves Radioman 3rd class

Sherley Rolland Sampson, age 24, from Polk County Erskine, Minnesota .

Spouse: Fern Vivian Sampson

Service era: World War II

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

Source: Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Minneapolist Star Tribune (1944)

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