Wilbarger county Texas

Collins, Ryan Daniel
Army Corporal

Ryan Daniel Collins, age 20, from Vernon, Texas, Wilbarger county.

Parents: Danita Logsdon and Lynn Collins

Service era: Iraq
Military history: Company C, 1St Battalion, 501St Infantry, Fort Richardson, Arkansas

Date of death: Friday, May 18, 2007
Death details: Died in Hamiyah, Iraq after being wounded the day before when his unit came in contact with enemy forces using small arms fire.

Source: Department of Defense, Military Times, Times Record News

Moore, Eldon Wayne
Army Private 1st class

Eldon Wayne Moore, age 19, from Oklaunion, Texas, Wilbarger county.

Parents: Donald R. Gilmore

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Wednesday, April 1, 1970
Death details: Killed when his armored vehicle was struck by a rocket propelled grenade and fragments struck him. He died during an evacuation effort.

Source: National Archives, Associated Press (1970), Vernon Daily Reocrd (1970)

Cook, Campbell Deffee
Army Corporal

Campbell Deffee Cook, age 21, from Vernon, Texas, Wilbarger county.

Parents: Grace Cook

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Wednesday, November 29, 1950
Death details: On November 29, 1950, men from Company G of the U.S. 1st Marine Regiment, MP Company and Tank Company, 1st Marine Division, Company B and elements of Company D of the 31st Infantry Regiment, Headquarters Company of the X Corps, and Royal Marines from Number 41 Independent Commando Battalion were sent north from Koto-ri to open the main supply route to Hagaru-ri and resupply and reinforce Allied troops that had been surrounded near the Chosin Reservoir. The group, known as Task Force Drysdale, set out with tanks and other vehicles in the lead and rear, and initially only met light resistance from Chinese Communist Forces (CCF). As attacks increased in ferocity, the group became fragmented as the CCF managed to establish road blocks that further split the task force. Soon, the CCF blew a bridge and halted the convoy altogether. The Royal Marines and most of Company G were north of the bridge at this time and were able to continue to Hagaru-ri. Near the south end of the convoy, a destroyed truck blocked the road. The tanks and troops south of the destroyed truck fought as long as possible before ultimately returning to Koto-ri on November 30. The men between the blown bridge and the destroyed truck, however, were trapped, and subjected to several mortar barrages before CCF moved into hand-to-hand combat range. Fighting raged there until the morning of November 30, when the survivors were forced to surrender. Over 300 troops were wounded, captured, or died during the action. Sergeant Campbell Deffee Cook, who joined the U.S. Army from Texas, served with Headquarters, X Corps. He was reported missing in action on November 29, 1950. He was part of a relief convoy moving north from Koto-ri to Hagaru-ri when the convoy was ambushed about halfway between the two towns and overrun by enemy forces. No one saw him fall in battle, and he was never reported to be a prisoner of war. His remains were not identified among those returned to U.S. custody after the ceasefire, and he is still unaccounted-for. Today, Sergeant Cook is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Times Record News (1951)

Hughes, Eugene L.
Army Private

Eugene L. Hughes from Texas, Wilbarger county.

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Sunday, June 7, 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. Corporal Eugene L. Hughes joined the U.S. Army in Texas and served with the 515th Coast Artillery Regiment in the Philippines during World War II. He was captured in Bataan following the American surrender and died of malaria and dysentery on June 7, 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, Corporal Hughes 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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