In Memoriam

[Grace]

Germany

15 April 2010

Surgeon Thomas Broer, 33. Bundeswehrkrankenhaus Ulm (Ulm Military Hospital)

Killed when a German convoy was attacked in Baghlan province, Afghanistan.

[Grace]

Netherlands

17 April 2010

Marine Marc Harders, 23

Cpl. Jeroen Houweling, 29

1e Bataljon, Nederland Korps Mariniers (1st Battalion, Netherlands Marine Corps)

Dutch Marines killed when a roadside bomb detonated near their Viking tracked vehicle during an operation in Deh Reshan, northwest of Tarin Kowt, in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan.

[Grace]

18 April 2010

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Pfc. Charlie C. Antonio, 28, of Kahului, Hawaii, died April 18 in Annassar, Iraq, of injuries suffered in a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.

[Grace]

U.S. Airman MIA from WWII is Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

U.S. Army Air Forces Tech. Sgt. Walter A. McClellan will be buried Friday in his hometown of Pensacola, Fla.

On April 17, 1945, McClellan’s B-17 Flying Fortress was struck by enemy fighters while on a bombing run against a rail depot in Dresden, Germany. Following the war, U.S. teams attempted to locate the remains of the crew but because the area was under Soviet control, no further searches could be conducted. The U.S. Army was forced to declare the remains of the “Towering Titan’s” crew to be non-recoverable.

Two reports from German citizens in 1956 and 2007 indicated that the remains of a 19-year-old were buried as an “unknown” in a local church cemetery in Burkhardswalde. Church records revealed that the grave held the remains of a young American flyer who had parachuted from his aircraft over the town of Biensdorf, was captured and killed by German SS forces near Burkhardswalde. He was first buried in the town’s sports field, but exhumed by the townspeople after the war and reburied in the church cemetery.

In September 2008, a recovery team of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command exhumed the grave in Burkhardswalde and recovered human remains and other artifacts, including a silver Army Air Forces identification bracelet bearing the emblem of a qualified aerial gunner. The biological profile of the remains and McClellan’s dental records enabled JPAC scientists to establish the identification.

[Grace]

19 April 2010

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Sgt. Robert J. Barrett, 20, of Fall River, Mass., died April 19 in Kabul, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when a suicide bomber attacked his unit. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 101st Field Artillery Regiment, Fall River, Mass.

[Grace]

18 April 2010

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Staff Sgt. James R. Patton, 23, of Fort Benning, Ga.. Died of injuries sustained when the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter in which he was riding crashed during a joint Iraqi-U.S. raid in Tikrit, Iraq, that killed the two most senior leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Fort Benning, Ga

[Grace]

17 April 2010

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Sgt. Michael K. Ingram Jr., 23, of Monroe, Mich., died April 17 in Kandahar, Afghanistan of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his dismounted patrol. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.