Michael Allen Benson, age 40, from Winona, Minnesota, Winona county.
Service era: Iraq
Military history: 1St Battalion, 314Th Infantry, 2D Bde, 78Th Id, (Tf Baghdad), Fort Drum, Ny
Date of death: Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Death details: Hostile; Bethesda, United States
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times
Allen Richard Lloyd, age 21, from Saint Charles, Minnesota, Winona county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Thursday, February 18, 1971
Death details: On February 18, 1971, a UH-1H Iroquois (tail number 68-15255) with four crew members took off as one of four helicopters on an emergency extraction mission for soldiers from a Special Forces camp located on the west side of A Shau Valley in Thua Thien Province, South Vietnam. Enemy troops fired on the Iroquois as it attempted to rescue the ground troops using a stable extraction rig, forcing the pilot to leave the area with three men still attached to the rigs. One of the troops on the extraction rigs fell off into the jungle and was eventually rescued. A short time after he fell, the helicopter was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire, which caused it to crash and burn with the four crew members and two rescued ground troops still inside. Sergeant Allen Richard Lloyd entered the U.S. Army from Minnesota and was a member of a member of Command and Control North, 5th Special Forces Group. He was one of the ground troops being rescued by this Iroquois when it was hit by enemy fire and crashed, and he was lost in the incident. Attempts to locate or identify his remains have been unsuccessful. Today, Sergeant Lloyd is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, findagrave.com
Harold Frederick Diekman, age 21, from Minnesota, Winona county.
Service era: Korea
Military history: 35th Infantry Regiment
Date of death: Monday, November 27, 1950
Death details: On November 27, 1950, B Company of the U.S. Army’s 35th Infantry Regiment, an element of Task Force Dolvin/Wilson, was holding a hastily erected defensive position near the village of Tong-dong, North Korea, when Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) attacked the company’s perimeter from two sides. After heavy fighting, the Chinese successfully infiltrated the American positions, forcing a withdrawal under heavy mortar and artillery fire. The U.S. troops pulled back to another position a mile farther south. Sergeant Harold Frederick Diekman entered the U.S. Army from Michigan and served with B Company of the 1st Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. He was captured on November 27, 1950, during this withdrawal from Tong-dong. As a prisoner of war (POW), he was marched to POW Camp 5 at Pyoktong, on the Yalu River, where he died in the spring or summer of 1951. He was buried near the camp; however, his remains were not identified among those returned to the U.S. following the ceasefire, and he is still unaccounted-for. Today, Sergeant Diekman is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, 35th Infantry Regiment Association, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency