Nathaniel Skorup Baughman, age 23, from Monticello, Indiana, White county.
Service era: Iraq
Military history: Company A, 1St Battalion, 187Th Infantry, 3 Bct, Fort Campbell, Ky
Date of death: Monday, July 17, 2006
Death details: Hostile; Balad, Iraq
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times
John Chilcott Tobias, age 40, from Burnettsville, Indiana, White county.
Spouse: Wanda R. Tobias
Children: Peter T. and John C. Jr.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Sunday, June 14, 1970
Death details: Died from natural causes in South Vietnam. He was found unconscious at his base camp and taken to the hospital where he died of possible intercranial hemorrhage.
Source: National Archives, San Rafael Daily Independent Journal (1970)
Gene Lewis Wagner from Indiana, White county.
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Sunday, July 16, 1950
Death details: On the evening of July 15, 1950, the U.S. Army’s 19th Infantry Regiment held defensive positions along the south bank of the Kum River. As dusk approached, North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) tanks appeared on the opposite shore and began firing on the U.S. positions. Although U.S. troops repulsed the attacks that evening, the next morning the NKPA crossed the river and launched a major attack against the 19th Regiment. As the regiment began withdrawing south to Taejon, the North Koreans pushed deep into their defensive lines and set up a roadblock en route to Taejon. When retreating American convoys could not break through the roadblock, soldiers were forced to leave the road and attempt to make their way in small groups across the countryside. Of the 900 soldiers in the 19th Infantry when the Battle of Kum River started, only 434 made it to friendly lines. Corporal Gene Lewis Wagner joined the U.S. Army from Indiana and was a member of Company A, 1st Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was captured by enemy forces during the fighting withdrawal from the Battle of Kum River on July 16. Corporal Wagner joined a group of prisoners who were marched to holding camps in North Korea. While marching near Kosan, North Korea, illness and exposure rendered CPL Wagner too weak to continue, and he was killed by a guard. He was not identified among remains returned to U.S. custody after the ceasefire, and he is still unaccounted-for. Today, Corporal Wagner is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Donald Rex Banes from Monon, Indiana, White county.
Parents: Isaac L. Banes
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Monday, December 18, 1944
Death details: He was aboard the destroyer USS Hull as it operated as part of the Fast Carrier Strike Force in the Philippine Sea. On December 17, 1944, the Hull was participating in refueling operations when the ships of its fueling group were engulfed by Typhoon Cobra. The Hull lost its ability to steer amid the enormous waves and began taking on water. The Hull eventually took on too much water to stay afloat and rolled and sank shortly before noon, on December 18. Sixty-two crew members were rescued, but a little more than two-hundred crew members were lost in the sinking.
Cemetery: Tablets of the MIssing at Manila American Cemetery
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Charles H. Rogers, age 20, from Indiana, White county.
Service era: World War II
Spouse: Engaged to marry Lois Jean Smith
Parents: Mrs. Herbert Baumgartner and Harold Rogers
School: Monon High (1942)
Date of death: October 1, 1944
Source: National Archives, South Bend Tribune (1944), Lafayette Journal and Courier (1944)
Billy Byron Baird from Monticello, Indiana, White county.
Parents: Verne Baird
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Sunday, December 7, 1941
Death details: Killed aboard the USS Arizona. Remains not recovered.
Cemetery: Tablets of the Missing at Honolulu Memorial
Source: National Archives, American Battle Monuments Commission, Department of Defense
Robert Vernon Estes from White County Monticello, Indiana .
Parents: Harry Stockdale, mother died shortly after he was declared missing.
Service era: Korea
Schools: Lincoln school
Date of death: Unknown
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. Corporal Robert Vernon Estes joined the U.S. Army from Indiana and was a member of Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. On November 30, 1950, he was captured by enemy forces outside of Kunu-ri, as his unit conducted its fighting withdrawal toward Sunchon. Corporal Estes was marched to a prisoner of war camp in North Korea known as the Mining Camp, where he died in January of 1951. He was not identified among remains returned to U.S. custody after the war, and he is still unaccounted-for. Today, Corporal Estes 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, Monticello Daily Herald Journal (1954)