Enoch: Casualties of war, part IV

Published 9:07 am Saturday, January 6, 2024

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By Harry Enoch

Contributing Writer

The Doughboy statue behind the courthouse has the names of 17 individuals from Clark County who died in the Korean War.  Researching newspaper records, we find one of those names should be omitted.  Claire Campbell was inducted into the Army in January 1946, after the end of World War II.  He died after a short illness at a hospital in Virginia in March 1946, before the Korean War began.

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We also identified three soldiers from Clark County who died in Korea and whose names do not appear on the Doughboy list.

Marion Hisle Todd

Marion H. Todd was born in 1921, a son of Everett Todd of Winchester.  A veteran of World War II, Marion had served in Panama and Europe, and received a Bronze Star for heroism, before his discharge from the Army in 1945.  Marion reenlisted in 1948 and was sent to Korea with the 24th Division of the 8th Army.  On February 6, 1951, Sergeant Todd was fatally wounded in action at Son-jo-Ni, near Seoul, South Korea.  He was awarded an Oak Leaf Cluster and Purple Heart posthumously.

Carl Dalton Logan

Pvt. Carl D. Logan, formerly of Winchester, served in Company C, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division.  He was killed in action on September 6, 1951, in North Korea.  Logan had worked at the Gulf station on Lexington Avenue.  He was survived by his parents Brinton and Dallie Logan, and brothers Claude of Winchester and Tom who was also in the armed services.  Private Logan received the Purple Heart, as well as several other awards for his service.  He was buried in the Logan Cemetery in Perry County.

Henry Prewitt Lewis

Henry P. Lewis was born in Montgomery County, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Andy Lewis.  After serving with the 11th Airborne Division in Japan during World War II, he reenlisted in 1951 and went to Korea with the 14th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division.  Corporal Lewis was serving as a machine gunner when he was killed in action in Korea on September 16, 1952.  He left a widow, Betty Green Lewis, who lived on Magnolia Street in Winchester.  Lewis is buried in Winchester Cemetery.

The Doughboy monument also lists the names of those from Clark County killed in World War II.  Several on the list were not technically casualties of war:  Owen Bailey, served in the war but died while on furlough after the war was over, and Eugene Ecton died of diabetes in the Pacific, also after the war had ended.  Henry Martin died in the merchant marines, not the armed forces.  For five other names, we could find no Clark County connection:  Robert Brown, Truman Crabtree, Samuel Medlin, Joe Pringle, and James Wurdack.  We would appreciate information concerning any of these men.

Research also turned up several names not on the Doughboy list.

Ray Dell Thompson

Ray D. Thompson was a Clark County native, the son of Richard and Ida Thompson.  Both parents were deceased when Ray died in a hospital in New Guinea on April 4, 1944.  The cause of death was attributed to peritonitis.  Born in 1917 during World War I, Staff Sergeant Thompson had been serving in the Army Air Force since January 1942.  He was interred in Versailles Cemetery, Woodford County.

David McKinly Richard

David M. Richard grew up in Winchester.  He was the son of Riolon D. and Georgia Ann Richard.  Riolon was a janitor at Kentucky Wesleyan College.  David, a Tec 4 in the 406th Ordinance Medium Maintenance Company, died February 12, 1945, at Camp Swift, Texas.  A service was held at his parents’ home on Denny Avenue, followed by burial in Reeves Cemetery, the abandoned graveyard on Old Muddy Creek Road.

Walter Redman Pinnell Jr.

Walter Pinnell learned to fly in Nashville with the Pack Flying Service when he was 22 years old.  Second Lieutenant Pinnell, 25, was killed when his B‑26 bomber exploded and crashed at Bolling Field near Keswick, Virginia, on August 7, 1942.  He is buried in Winchester Cemetery.

Robert “Bobby” Anderson

Bobby Anderson was a graduate of Winchester High School and resided here with his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Nelson.  First Lieutenant Anderson had been in the service two years when he died.  He was a flight officer in the air transport service in India when his plane disappeared at an undisclosed date in 1945.  Anderson left a wife and two children in Lincoln, Nebraska.