Promote & Preserve stories of U.S. fallen soldiers/sailors
Jeremy Scott Shock, age 22, from Tiffin, Ohio, Seneca county.
Service era: Iraq
Schools: Clyde High (2002)
Military history: Wpns Co, 1St Bn, 24Th Mar, (Rct-5, I Mef Fwd), 4Th Mar Div, Perrysburg, Oh
Date of death: Sunday, November 19, 2006
Death details: Humvee he was traveling in was struck by a roadside bomb in Fallujah, Iraq
Source: Department of Defense, Toledo Blade, Military Times
Robert Lee Luster, age 19, from Tiffin, Ohio, Seneca county.
Service era: Vietnam
Military history: 35th Infantry Regiment
Date of death: Thursday, April 8, 1976
Death details: Died when medevac shot down, Pleiku Province
Cemetery: Arlington National
Source: National Archives, 35th Infantry Regiment Association
Roy Dewitt Prater from Tiffin, Ohio, Seneca county. Their last known residence was in Tiffin.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Thursday, April 6, 1972
Death details: On April 6, 1972, six airmen were flying a combat search and rescue mission in their HH-53C Super Jolly Green Giant helicopter over Quang Tri Province in South Vietnam when they were hit by enemy ground fire and crashed. Joint U.S. – Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) field investigations from 1989 to 1992, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), yielded evidence leading to an excavation at the crash site in 1994 as well as two reported burial sites. Team members recovered human remains and personal effects as well as aircraft debris. As a result of these recoveries, all six men on the aircraft were accounted-for in 1997 and buried as a group at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. Three were individually identified at that time. Recent technical advances enabled JPAC to identify additional remains to be those of Prater. Previously, in 1988, the S.R.V. turned over remains they attributed to an American serviceman, however, the name did not match anyone lost or missing from the Vietnam War. The remains were held by JPAC pending improved technology which might have facilitated an identification later. In the mid-2000s, JPAC’s laboratory gained increased scientific capability to associate the 1988 remains to the correct loss. The Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) tested these remains against all those servicemembers who were MIA from the Vietnam War with negative results. In 2009, AFDIL expanded its search to make comparisons with previously- resolved individuals. As a result of AFDIL’s mitochondrial DNA testing, JPAC scientists determined that these remains were associated with four of the six airmen from the 1972 crash.
Cemetery: Columbia City, Indiana (buried June 19, 2010)
Source: National Archives, Department of Defense
Donald Charles Tallman, age 19, from Seneca County Tiffin, Ohio .
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Saturday, October 30, 1971
Death details: Hostile, South Vietnam
Source: National Archives, Associated Press (1971)
Willis Eugene Jr. Kerlin, age 24, from Tiffin, Ohio, Seneca county.
Parents: Jenette R. Bland
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Sunday, September 26, 1971
Death details: Non-hostile, South Vietnam
Source: National Archives, Tampa Bay Times (1971)
Richard Hugh Savieo, age 21, from Fostoria, Ohio, Seneca county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Tuesday, August 25, 1970
Death details: Hostile, South Vietnam
Source: National Archives
Dale Edward Williams, age 22, from Attica, Ohio, Seneca county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Sunday, June 14, 1970
Death details: Hostile, Cambodia
Source: National Archives
Lawrence William Theis, age 22, from New Riegel, Ohio, Seneca county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Friday, May 22, 1970
Death details: Hostile, Cambodia
Source: National Archives
George Jacob Shank, age 24, from Fostoria, Ohio, Seneca county.
Parents: Ema Jane Shank
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Wednesday, November 1, 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 George Jacob Shank joined the U.S. Army from Ohio and was a member of Company G of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. On November 1, 1950, Company G was in defensive positions with the 2nd Battalion near Unsan, when it came under intense rocket and mortar attacks and infantry assaults and was forced to withdraw. Sergeant First Class Shank went missing during this action, though circumstances surrounding his loss are unknown. He was never officially reported as a prisoner of war, and his remains have not been identified among any returned to the U.S. following the war. Today, Sergeant First Class Shank is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Sandusky Register (1950)
Gerald A. Lichtle, age 26, from Ohio, Seneca county.
Service era: World War II
Military history: Infantry
Date of death: Thursday, October 5, 1944
Death details: Died of wounds
Cemetery: New Albany National
Source: National Archives, grave marker