In Memoriam

[Grace]

20 June 2011

US Army Pfc. Joshua L. Jetton, serving with the 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, based in Hawaii, was killed in action in Kunar province on 20th June 2011.

His unit was ambushed by insurgent forces and Pfc. Jetton was shot during the battle that followed.

The body of 21-year-old Pfc. Jetton, from Sebring, Florida, was flown to Dover Air Force Base at 1pm on Wednesday 22nd June 2011.

Pfc. Jetton leaves his wife Alicia who is expecting twins.

[Grace]

World War II

Airmen Missing In Action from WWII Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of five Army Air Forces servicemen, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

Capt. Leonard E. Orcutt, Alameda, Calif., was buried on May 5 in Oakland, Calif; Tech. Sgt. Louis H. Miller, Philadelphia, was buried on June 17 in Arlington National Cemetery; Staff Sgt. George L. Winkler, Huntington, W.Va., was buried May 5 in Arlington National Cemetery; 2nd Lt. Harry L. Bedard, Minneapolis, will be buried on June 25 in Dayton, Minn.; and 2nd Lt. Robert S. Emerson, Norway, Maine, will be buried July 9 in his hometown.

On April 3, 1945, Orcutt and his crew took off in their B-25J Mitchell bomber from Palawan Field, Philippines. The pilot of another aircraft in the flight reported seeing Orcutt’s plane stall out and crash about one mile northeast of the village of Consolacion in a swampy area. There were no survivors.

In early 1947, personnel from the Army’s Graves Registration Service recovered additional remains from the crash site and buried them as unknowns in Leyte, Philippines. Later that year, they were exhumed and transferred to Manila for possible identification. In 1949, a military review board declared these unknown group remains to be those of the aircrew and re-buried them at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis, Mo.

Two years later, the Graves Registration Service returned to the crash site and recovered additional remains. The case was reanalyzed and a recommendation was made that the group remains at Jefferson Barracks be disinterred for individual identification. All remains from the crash site were examined with no resulting identification. They were reburied at the same location. A sister of one of the airmen contacted the Army in 2001 upon learning of the recovery of additional remains in the 1950s. The Army then disinterred the group remains at Jefferson Barracks in 2008 which were taken to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) in Hawaii for identification.

Among forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC used dental comparisons and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used mitochondrial DNA -- which matched that of relatives of the aircrew -- in the identification of these airmen.

At the end of the war, the U.S. government was unable to recover and identify approximately 79,000 Americans. Today, more than 73,000 are unaccounted-for from the conflict.

[Grace]

22 June 2011

Hawaii-based US Army Specialist Levi E. Nuncio, 24, from Harrisonburg, Virginia, was killed in action on 22nd June 2011 during an engagement with enemy forces in Kunar province, Afghanistan. Spc. Nuncio died after being hit with small arms fire.

Spc. Nuncio served with the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division.

He joined the army in 2009. This was his first deployment to Afghanistan.

[Grace]

22 June 2011

21-year-old US Marine Corporal Gurpreet Singh from Antelope, California, died in Helmand province, Afghanistan on 22nd June 2011 from wounds received while conducting combat operations.

Cpl. Singh was assigned to 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, based at Camp Pendleton, California. He joined the Marines in November 2007 and had deployed in combat twice.

[Grace]

24 June 2011

28-year-old US Army Specialist Nicholas C. D. Hensley from Prattville, Alabama, died on 24th June 2011 from wounds received when a bomb detonated in Kandahar on 15th June. He had been evacuated to to a hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. His family were at his side when he died.

Spc. Hensley served with the 4th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, based at Fort Riley, Kansas.

Spc. Hensley had served two combat tours in Iraq and deployed to Afghanistan in February this year.

He holds a Purple Heart, two Army Commendation Medals and a Combat Action Badge, among other awards.

[Grace]

France

Para 1st Class Cyrille Hugodot, serving with the French 1st Parachute Regiment, was killed in action on Saturday 25th June 2011 during a battle with enemy forces in Tagab, Kapisa province.

His unit was protecting engineers deployed to find and destroy bombs and other explosive devices in the area, when they were attacked.

Paratrooper Hugodot, age 24, joined the RCP (Paras) in March 2009. He had previously deployed to Gabon and arrived in Afghanistan on 15th May this year. He leaves a wife and young daughter.

[Grace]

Canada

Canadian Army Master Corporal Francis Roy, from Rimouski, Quebec, died on 25th June 2011 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, from what military officials described as "non-combat related wounds".

MCpl. Roy was serving with the Canadian Special Operations Regiment (CSOR) and a former member of the Royal 22e Regiment.

MCpl. Roy, a logistician specializing in transport movements, volunteered to join CSOR in 2007. The Canadian Task Force Kandahar commander, Brigadier-General Dean Milner described MCpl. Roy as "an avid fisherman and runner, with a passion for old cars."

The circumstances surrounding his death are under investigation.