Cory Joseph Bertrand, age 18, from Center, Texas, Shelby county.
Service era: Iraq
Date of death: Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Death details: Hostile; Qazi Bandeh, Afghanistan
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times
Larry Earl Polley Jr., age 20, from Center, Texas, Shelby county.
Service era: Iraq
Military history: B Battery 2D Battalion 20Th Field Artillery Regiment, Fort Hood, Tx 76544
Date of death: Saturday, January 17, 2004
Death details: Hostile; Taji, Iraq
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times
Ernest W. Allen, age 27, from Center, Texas, Shelby county.
Parents: J.H. Allen
Spouse: Married
Service era: World War II
Military history: 35th Infantry Regiment
Date of death: Saturday, September 4, 1943
Death details: While acting as a point for a patrol which had penetrated the Japanese outposts, Pfc Allen aggressively killed two of the enemy and assisted in killing a third with quick and accurate fire. One of the Japanese casualties was an officer carrying a map completely revealing the hostile positions. Through its use, our forces were enabled to expeditiously reduce enemy resistance. In subsequent actions, Pfc Allen was killed instantly by Japanese machine gun fire. By his courage, devotion to duty and at the sacrifice of his life, he contributed inestimably to the successful culmination of the operation.
Cemetery: Maila American Cemetery, memorialized in Sardis Cemetery, Shelbyville, Texas
Source: National Archives, American Battle Monuments Commission, 35th Infantry Association, 35th Infantry Regiment Association
Beford Jr. Whiteside from Texas, Shelby county.
Service era: World War II
Military history: 17 Bombardment Squadron 27 Bombardment Group (Light)
Date of death: Monday, October 19, 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 Bedford Whiteside Jr. entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from Texas and served with the 17th Bombardment Squadron, 27th Bombardment Group 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 October 19, 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 Whiteside is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency