Robert A Bowen from Wytheville, Virginia, Wythe county.
Date of death: Thursday, December 12, 1985
Death details: Accident, Gander, Newfoundland, Canada
Source: This information is contained in the Virginia Military Dead Database (http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/guides/vmd/), provided courtesy of the Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.
James Earnest Viars from Virginia, Wythe county.
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Monday, November 27, 1950
Death details: On July 11, 1950, the U.S. Army’s 21st Infantry Regiment, which had arrived in Korea six days earlier, was placed in defensive positions near the town of Chochiwon, South Korea. The regiment was not at full strength and lacked artillery and anti-tank weapons. That day, they were attacked by North Korean forces and were forced to withdraw to avoid being surrounded, as well as to buy time until they could be reinforced and resupplied. Corporal James Earnest Viars, who joined the U.S. Army from Virginia, served with I Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was captured by enemy forces north of Chochiwon on July 12, and forced to march to the Apex prison camps in North Korea. He died of exhaustion and pneumonia on November 27 at the camp at Hanjang-ni, and was buried near the camp. His remains were not identified among those returned to U.S. custody after the ceasefire, and he is still unaccounted for. Today, Corporal Viars is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
William Kelly Snow, age 41, from Virginia, Wythe county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Thursday, January 7, 1943
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. Chief Water Tender William Kelly Snow joined the U.S. Navy from Virginia and was stationed at Fort Mills on Corregidor, which served as the headquarters for the Philippine Department’s defenses of Manila Bay during World War II. He was captured by the Japanese during the defense of Corregidor and was eventually interned at the Cabanatuan Prison Camp, where he died of dysentery on January 7, 1943. 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, Chief Water Tender Snow is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
Source: Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency