William Pleus from Wisconsin, Taylor county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Saturday, January 27, 1945
Death details: Finding of death
Cemetery: Zachary Taylor National
Source: National Archives, grave marker
Richard Andrew Barta, age 22, from Taylor County Chelsea, Wisconsin .
Parents: Andrew Barta
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Wednesday, June 14, 1944
Death details: Killed aboard the USS Golet when it was destroyed by Japanese forces.
Source: National Archives, oneternalpatrol.com, Capital Times (1944)
Kenneth R. Smith from Wisconsin, Taylor county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Wednesday, July 22, 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. Sergeant Kenneth R. Smith joined the U.S. Army Air Forces from Wisconsin and served with the 28th Material Squadron, 20th Air Base Group in the Philippines during World War II. He was captured on Corregidor Island following the American surrender on May 6, 1942, and died of malaria on July 22, 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, Sergeant Smith is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Lee I. Clendenning, age 23, from Taylor County Rib Lake, Wisconsin .
Parents: Archie Clendenning
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Sunday, December 7, 1941
Death details: On March 11, 2025, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Pfc. Lee I. Clendenning, missing from World War II. Clendenning entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from Wisconsin and was a member of the 23rd Bombardment Squadron, 5th Bombardment Group on Hickam Field on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. On Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese military forces conducted a surprise attack on U.S. forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, as well as surrounding U.S. military installations. Located next to Pearl Harbor, Hickam Field was in the direct path of Japanese planes, who targeted U.S. aircrafts and ships, barracks, supply buildings, and the base chapel over the course of four hours. Clendenning was reportedly killed during this time. In the days following the attack, Navy personnel recovered the remains of U.S. Army and U.S. Army Air Forces casualties, which were subsequently interred in the Schofield Barracks Cemetery. Although some remains were interred as named burials, in the chaos of the attack many casualties were recovered without initial identification. After the war, the American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) exhumed the remains from Schofield Barracks Cemetery and transferred them to the Central Identification Laboratory at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, for processing. The remains that could not be identified at the time were buried as Unknowns in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP). In 2020 DPAA personnel, in cooperation with cemetery officials, exhumed the caskets containing Unknowns reported to be associated with Hickam Field losses at the NMCP and transferred the remains to the DPAA Laboratory for analysis. The laboratory analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available established an association between one set of these unknown remains and Clendenning.
Cemetery: Rib Lake (2025)
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Marshfield News Herald (1943)
Frank J. Fuchs, age 28, from Whittlesby, Wisconsin, Taylor county.
Service era: World War I
Date of death: Monday, October 7, 1918
Death details: Died of disease
Cemetery: Saint Ann in Rib Lake, Wisconsin
Source: Soldiers of the Great War, findagrave.com