Vermont Vermont

Miner, Donald Wayne
Army Private

Donald Wayne Miner from Vermont, Washington county.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Wednesday, January 31, 1951
Death details: On July 11, 1950, the U.S. Army’s 21st Infantry Regiment, which had arrived in Korea six days earlier, was placed in defensive positions near the town of Chochiwon, South Korea. The regiment was not at full strength and lacked artillery and anti-tank weapons. That day, they were attacked by North Korean forces and were forced to withdraw to avoid being surrounded, as well as to buy time until they could be reinforced and resupplied. Private First Class Donald Wayne Miner, who joined the U.S. Army from Vermont, served with M Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was captured by enemy forces on July 12 north of Chochiwon, and was forced to march north to the Apex prison camps in North Korea. He died of malnutrition and pneumonia on January 31, 1951, at the camp at Hanjang-ni, and was buried a short distance from the camp. His remains were not identified among those returned to U.S. custody after the ceasefire, and he is still unaccounted for. Today, Private First Class Miner is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

Hathaway, Alevin A.
Army Private

Alevin A. Hathaway from Vermont, Chittenden county.

Service era: World War II
Military history: Company E, 2nd Battalion, 109th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division

Date of death: Tuesday, November 6, 1945
Death details: On January 14, 2021, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Private Alevin A. Hathaway, missing from World War II. Private Hathaway joined the U.S. Army from Vermont and was a member of Company E, 109th Infantry Regiment. On November 6, 1944, he was reported missing in action following a reconnaissance patrol southwest of Hurtgen, Germany, during the Battle of Hurtgen Forest. In May of 1946, a set of remains were recovered from the Hurtgen Forest near Private Hathaway’s last known location. The remains could not be identified at the time, and were buried as unknowns at the Ardennes American Cemetery. In 2017, based on historical research and analysis, a DPAA historian noted a strong association between this unknown set of remains and Private Hathaway. The remains were exhumed and sent to the DPAA laboratory in April 2018, where they were eventually identified as those of Private Hathaway.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

Cooke, Merald W.
Army Private

Merald W. Cooke from Vermont, Rutland county.

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Thursday, November 12, 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. Private Merald W. Cooke Jr.entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from Vermont and served with the 17th Pursuit Squadron, 24th Pursuit Group in the Philippines during World War II. He was captured in Bataan following the American surrender and died of beriberi on November 12, 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 Cooke is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

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