Promote & Preserve stories of U.S. fallen soldiers/sailors
Thomas J. Dodds Dudley, age 29, from Tega Cay, South Carolina, York county.
Service era: Afghanistan
Military history: Marine Air Group 26, 2nd Marine Air Wing, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Air Station New River, Jacksonville, North Carolina
Date of death: Thursday, July 7, 2011
Death details: Died while conducting combat operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times
Patrick Daniel Leach, age 39, from Rock Hill, South Carolina, York county.
Service era: Iraq
Military history: Company A, 1St Battalion, 151St Aviation, Eastover, Sc 29044
Date of death: Thursday, December 9, 2004
Death details: Mosul, Iraq
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times
Paul Michael Neff II, age 30, from Fort Mill, South Carolina, York county.
Service era: Iraq
Military history: Company B 5Th Battalion 101St Aviation, Fort Campbell, Ky 42223
Date of death: Friday, November 7, 2003
Death details: Hostile; Tikrit, Iraq
Source: Department of Defense, Military Times
Albert Ward Jr. Smarr, age 37, from York County Hickory Grove, South Carolina .
Service era: Vietnam
Schools: Clemson University (1959)
Military history: He entered the Army Air Force in 1943 and was shot down over Berlin and taken prisoner. He was freed when the Russian Army liberated Berlin.
Date of death: Friday, February 25, 1972
Death details: Killed in a helicopter crash over the coastal water of Danang, Vietnam.
Source: National Archives, Daily Record (1972)
Lawrence Edward Scott, age 25, from Fort Mill, South Carolina, York county.
Parents: James H. Scott
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Wednesday, November 25, 1970
Death details: Non-hostile death
Source: National Archives, UPI (1970)
Johnny Phillip Costner, age 31, from York, South Carolina, York county.
Parents: V.J. Costner and preceded in death by Mattie B. Costner
Service era: Vietnam
Schools: York High
Date of death: Tuesday, November 10, 1970
Death details: Killed in Vietnam
Source: National Archives, Rock Hill Herald (1970)
Lindell Ray Stegall from Fort Mill, South Carolina, York county.
Service era: Vietnam
Date of death: Friday, April 3, 1970
Source: National Archives
Philip H. Ashe, age 23, from South Carolina, York county.
Service era: World War II
Date of death: Monday, July 20, 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 and food and water supplied 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. First Lieutenant Philip H. Ashe joined the U.S. Army Air Forces in South Carolina and served with the 93rd Bombardment Squadron, 19th Bombardment Group in the Philippines during World War II. He was captured in Bataan following the American surrender and died of malaria on July 20, 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, First Lieutenant Ashe 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: Nation Archives, American Battle Monuments Commission, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Carey L. Farris, age 21, from Fort Mill, South Carolina, York county.
Service era: World War I
Date of death: Sunday, October 6, 1918
Death details: Killed in action
Cemetery: Flint Hill Baptist Church, Fort Mill
Source: Soldiers of the Great War, findagrave.com, findagrave.com