Jeremiah Soham Santos, age 21, from Minot, North Dakota, Ward county.
Service era: Iraq
Military history: Company B, 2D Battalion, 8Th Infantry, Fort Hood, Tx
Date of death: Thursday, June 15, 2006
Death details: Died of injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee during combat operations in Baghdad, Iraq
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times
David Donald Berdahl, age 19, from Ward County Minot, North Dakota .
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Thursday, January 20, 1972
Death details: On January 20, 1972, a UH-1H Iroquois (tail number 69-16717) carrying four crew and four passengers took off on a recovery mission for downed U.S. pilots. The aircraft was returning from the rescue mission when it was hit by enemy ground fire southeast of Khe Sanh combat base in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam. The aircraft caught fire and crash landed on the bank of the Rao Quan River, in the vicinity of (GC) XD 883 408. A rescue crew member observed an individual from the loss aircraft pinned face down in the burning wreckage, but was unable to extricate him. Hostile forces in the area prevented further rescue attempts at the crash site, and two members of the crew remain unaccounted for. Private First Class David Donald Berdahl, who joined the U.S. Army from North Dakota, was a member of Troop D, 3rd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. He was a door gunner aboard the UH-1H when it went down, and was lost with the aircraft. His remains were not recovered following the incident. Today, Private First Class Berdahl is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. His name is also inscribed along with all his fallen comrades on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC.
Source: National Archives, Bismarck Tribune (1972), Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Alan Rolf Hinzpeter, age 22, from Minot, North Dakota, Ward county. Their last known residence was in James G. Hinzpeter.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Monday, September 6, 1971
Death details: Killed in action
Source: National Archives, Minneapolis Star Tribune (1971)
Bruce Lloyd Wold, age 23, from Minot, North Dakota, Ward county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Tuesday, April 21, 1970
Source: National Archives
Allan James Korom, age 19, from Ward County Minot, North Dakota .
Parents: Alvin J. Korom
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Sunday, May 22, 1966
Source: Associated Press (1966)
Ralph A. Copeland, age 28, from Ward County North Dakota.
Parents: Anderson R. Coplenad
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Sunday, November 14, 1965
Death details: Killed in Vietnam
Source: National Archives, Associated Press (1965)
Robert Lee Krag, age 35, from Ward County Minot, North Dakota .
Service era: Vietnam
Schools: US Naval Academy (1950)
Date of death: Wednesday, April 10, 1963
Death details: Killed aboard the atomic submarine Thresher when the ship went missing 220 miles East of Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Source: ussthresher.com, Associated Press (1963), US Naval Academy, oneternalpatrol.com
Rex Aton, age 46, from Ward County North Dakota.
Spouse: Almyra Aton
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Tuesday, January 9, 1945
Death details: On December 13, 1944, Japanese forces in the Philippines began the transfer of 1,621 Allied prisoners of war (POWs) to Japan. The POWs were to make the journey aboard transport ships whose harsh conditions and extreme overcrowding led survivors to refer to them as “Hell Ships.” The ships also lacked markings that would distinguish them from any other military target, causing some of them to be attacked by Allied forces who could not identify them as POW transports. On December 14, 1944, Allied aircraft attacked the first ship, the Oryoku Maru, in Subic Bay in the Philippines, killing many Allied POWs who became lost in the water, sank with the ship, or were washed ashore. Survivors of the bombing were put aboard two other ships, the Enoura Maru and the Brazil Maru, to continue on to Japan. During the journey, while anchored in Takao Harbor, Formosa (present-day Taiwan), the Enoura Maru was attacked by Allied aircraft from the USS Hornet (CV-8), killing Allied POWs who were lost in the water, on board the ship, or on the nearby shore. Survivors of the Enoura Maru bombing were loaded onto the Brazil Maru, and reached Japan on January 30, 1945. As a result of these incidents, Allied POWs were lost in the Philippines, at sea between the Philippines and Taiwan, while anchored in Taiwan, at sea between Taiwan and Japan, and in Japan. The attacks on these POW transports ultimately resulted in a series of death notifications from the Japanese government through the International Red Cross (IRC), and some casualties were given up to five different dates of death at various locations during the transfer. Witness accounts from surviving POWs offer detailed information for a handful of casualties, but the specific dates of loss and/or last-known locations for many of these POWs are based on the most recent reported date of death. Captain Rex Aton, who joined the U.S. Army from North Dakota, served with Headquarters and Service Company, 12th Medical Battalion, in the Philippines. He was captured by enemy forces during the Japanese invasion of the islands and interned in a prison camp in the Philippines until December 1944, when he was put aboard the Oryoku Maru for transport to Japan. Records indicate he was killed several weeks later in the attack on the Enoura Maru; however, these reports often involve information solely furnished by enemy governments, with some casualties given multiple dates of death. Future research may determine that these reports were inaccurate. His remains could not be identified following the war, and he is still unaccounted-for. Today, Captain Aton is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Cemetery: Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery
Source: National Archives, American Battle Monuments Commission, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Fargo Forum (1946)
Harry W. Eck, age 23, from Ward County Minot, North Dakota .
Parents: Harry B. Eck
Service era: World War II
Schools: Minot High graduate, University of North Dakota
Date of death: Wednesday, September 13, 1944
Death details: On December 19, 2011, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC, now DPAA) accounted for First Lieutenant Harry W. Eck, missing from World War II. First Lieutenant Eck, who entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from North Dakota, served with the 327th Bombardment Squadron, 92nd Bombardment Group (Heavy). On September 13, 1944, he was the pilot of a B-17G Flying Fortress (serial number 42-31250, nicknamed “Mag the Hag, the 2nd”) that carried nine crew members on a bombing mission against oil refineries near Merseburg, Germany, and then moved to targets near Altenburg, south of Merseburg. At some point, 1LT Eck’s aircraft was hit by enemy fire and crashed near Neustadt. One crew member successfully parachuted out of the aircraft before it crashed, but the remaining eight were killed in the crash and their bodies recovered by German forces and buried in a cemetery in Neustadt. Following the war, U.S. Army Graves Registration Service personnel recovered and moved the remains of one crew member to a U.S. military cemetery in Holland; however, by 1953, access to eastern Germany was restricted by the Soviet Union, which prevented any further recovery efforts of the seven remaining crew members including 1LT Eck. In 1991, a German national digging a grave in the Neustadt cemetery discovered a U.S. military identification tag and notified officials. German burial law restricted any further site investigation efforts; however, the law changed in 2007. In 2008, JPAC officials traveled to the site where they recovered human remains and military equipment correlating to the B-17G’s loss, and JPAC analysts used modern forensic techniques to eventually identify 1LT Eck from these collective remains.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Fargo Forum (1945)
William M. Bryson from North Dakota, Ward county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Saturday, April 1, 1944
Death details: Finding of death
Cemetery: Zachary Taylor National
Source: National Archives, grave marker