Andres Aguilar Jr., age 21, from Victoria, Texas, Victoria county.
Service era: Iraq
Military history: 3D Bn, 3D Mar, (Rct-7, I Mef Fwd), 3D Mar Div, Mcb Kaneohe Bay, Hi
Date of death: Sunday, April 2, 2006
Death details: Asr Uranium, Iraq
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times
Gary Wayne Walters Jr., age 31, from Victoria, Texas, Victoria county.
Service era: Iraq
Military history: Battery A, 1St Battalion, 9Th Field Artillery, (Tf Baghdad), 3Rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Georgia
Date of death: Sunday, April 24, 2005
Death details: Hostile; Baghdad, Iraq
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times
Alfredo Salazar, age 20, from Victoria, Texas, Victoria county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Thursday, December 31, 1970
Source: National Archives
Arturo Cantu, age 28, from Victoria County Texas.
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Monday, January 8, 1951
Death details: By mid-November 1950, U.S. and Allied forces had advanced to within approximately sixty miles of the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and China. On November 25, approximately 300,000 Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) “volunteers” suddenly and fiercely counterattacked after crossing the Yalu. The 2nd Infantry Division, located the farthest north of units at the Chongchon River, could not halt the CCF advance and was ordered to withdraw to defensive positions at Sunchon in the South Pyongan province of North Korea. As the division pulled back from Kunu-ri toward Sunchon, it conducted an intense rearguard action while fighting to break through well-defended roadblocks set up by CCF infiltrators. The withdrawal was not complete until December 1, and the 2nd Infantry Division suffered extremely heavy casualties in the process. Master Sergeant Arturo Cantu, who joined the U.S. Army from Texas, was a member of the Medical Company, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He was captured by the CCF during the withdrawal from the Kunu-ri area on December 1. He was taken to a holding point in the Pukchin-Tarigol Valley in North Korea, where he died of pneumonia on January 8, 1951. His remains have not been recovered, and he was not identified among the remains returned to U.S. custody after the war. Today, Master Sergeant Cantu is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. His name is also inscribed on the Korean War Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC, which was updated in 2022 to include the names of the fallen.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Adelaido M. Solis, age 19, from Texas, Victoria county.
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Friday, December 1, 1950
Death details: Army Pfc. Adelaido M. Solis, 19, who died as a prisoner of war during the Korean War, was accounted for Aug. 15, 2022. In late 1950, Solis was a member of Company B, 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action on Dec. 1, 1950, after his unit’s withdrawal from Kunu-ri, North Korea, following the Battle of Ch’ongch’on. In 1953, a POW returned during Operation Big Switch reported Solis had been a prisoner of war and died in April 1951 at Prisoner of War Camp #5.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Adelaido M. Solis, age 19, from Texas, Victoria county.
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Friday, December 1, 1950
Death details: Army Pfc. Adelaido M. Solis, 19, who died as a prisoner of war during the Korean War, was accounted for Aug. 15, 2022. In late 1950, Solis was a member of Company B, 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action on Dec. 1, 1950, after his unit’s withdrawal from Kunu-ri, North Korea, following the Battle of Ch’ongch’on. In 1953, a POW returned during Operation Big Switch reported Solis had been a prisoner of war and died in April 1951 at Prisoner of War Camp #5.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Samuel E. Thomas, age 27, from Victoria County Texas.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Sunday, July 5, 1942
Death details: On July 5, 1942, a C-53B Skytrooper (serial number 41-20048) took off from Elmendorf Army Air Force Base, Alaska, on a transport mission to Seattle, Washington, carrying four crew members and twelve passengers. Approximately twenty-five miles northeast of Fort Randall, Cold Bay, Alaska, the aircraft crashed into a mountain on Kodiak Island in the Seward Peninsula off of northwest Alaska. All sixteen men on board died in the crash, but only the remains of six were recovered. The other ten occupants remain unaccounted for. Sergeant Samuel E. Thomas, who joined the U.S. Army Air Forces from Texas, was a member of the 54th Fighter Squadron, 55th Fighter Group. He was a passenger aboard this Skytrooper when it crashed during its transport mission to Seattle. His remains were not recovered following the crash. Today, Sergeant Thomas is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Adolph Louis Kruppa, age 20, from Victoria County Placedo Junction, Texas .
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Sunday, December 7, 1941
Death details: Killed aboard the USS Arizona. Remains not recovered.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Irvin Self, age 23, from Victor, Texas, Victoria county.
Parents: Lulu Self
Service era: Early 1900s
Date of death: Thursday, November 15, 1928
Cemetery: Among officers killed when the wing on the plane they were aboard tore itself loose from the body of the plane. The biplane crashed nose first in Texas. The victims of the accident volunteered to take the flight so that six officers scheduled to get in some flying time could attend a football game. The men were trapped in the cabin by folds of an open parachute.
Source: Lincoln Journal Star (1928), Sacramento Bee (1929)