Scott County, Tennessee
World War II War Heroes

This page was updated 06 Sep 2008

People from Scott County who served and died in World War II.

Source information:  The list of names in the following table comes from the World War II Honor List of Dead and Missing Army and Army Air Forces Personnel from Tennessee (NARA Control Number:  NWCTM-407-WWIICASARMY-TN) published by the War Department in June 1946 and State Summary of War Casualties from World War II for Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard Personnel from Tennessee (NARA Control Number:  NWCTM-24-WWIICASNAVY-TN) published by the U.S. Navy in August 1946.  The War Deparment document only identifies name, serial number, rank, and casualty status.  The U. S. Navy document only identifies name, rank, next of kin, and next of kin address.  The birth and death dates come from death certificates, obituaries, tombstone inscriptions, etc.  Go to the National Archives and Records Administration and use the NAIL search engine to find the original goverment documents (use the advanced search engine and enter one of the control numbers listed above.)

Another place to look is the National World War II Memorial website.

I need your help to make this table complete.  Please email me with information that completes or corrects the table.  I would be particularly grateful for copies of obituaries, pictures of headstones, death certificates, and pictures of the soldier.  I think others would be interested in knowing the specific military units in which these soldiers served and where they died.

Be sure to read the information appearing after the table.

The following comes from the War Department document:

"The Honor List of Dead for the STATE OF TENNESSEE is published by the War Department for the information of public officials, the press, the radio and interested organizations.  It contains the latest and most complete data available on all military personnel who were killed or died, or became and remained missing, between the President's declaration of unlimited national emergency on May 27, 1941, and the cut-off date of this report, January 31, 1946, and includes both battle and non-battle dead or missing.  The complete work, of which this volume is a part, contains about 300,000 names of men and women who gave their lives while serving in the Army of the United States."

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"The physical search for missing person, which went on all during the war, has been expanded and extended since the collapse of enemy resistance.  Experts in all fields of investigation and identification have been sent into areas where missing persons were last seen.  Through conferences with local officials and clergymen and by means of checks of rosters and other military lists, the bodies of missing persons are being recovered and identified daily.  Thought the loss of official records as at Corregidor in 1942 and during the Ardennes counteroffensive of 1944-45, has increased the difficulties encountered by the search teams, the scope of the teams' work has been so broad in the past eight months (in the case of Japan) to one year (in Germany) that the War Department is reluctant to hold out hope to next of kin that any missing personnel are still alive."

"No civilians are included in this report.  Red Cross personnel and other civilians serving with the Army became casualties during the War, but procedure for reporting civilian personnel differs from that for reporting military individuals."

"The following pages show a breakdown by counties and types of casualties, followed by a breakdown alphabetically by counties, the counties themselves being listed in alphabetical order."

"In the presentation of these lists, it was necessary to establish a set of criteria on which the proper location of each individual's name would be determined.  The following procedure was set up:"

1. "If an individual gave an address as his home when he entered the Army, his name is listed in the county in which this address was located.
2. "If he gave no home address, but designated a beneficiary or next of kin--either of whom must be a relative in limited degrees of kinship--or in the absence of relatives an emergency addressee who may be a friend, his name will appear in the county in which the address of the beneficiary, next of kin or emergency addressee is located.
3. "If neither home nor emergency address was given (this was the case in rare instances where aliens were without family or residence in this country) the county of the draft board of origin is the one in which he is listed.
4. "In the case of certain Regular Army personnel who moved their homes from place to place according to exigencies of the service, the only address available is "The Adjutant General", and these personnel will be listed in the District of Columbia booklet.
5. "A very few cases exist in which none of these four criteria obtains.  It is impossible to determine the county in these cases and such individuals are list in some state volumes under the "State at Large", a listing following the last county listing in the book.  No instances have been found wherein it is impossible to locate a person as to state except as mentioned in (4) above."

"The lists which follow contain information as to individuals in the following order:  name, army serial number, grade and status of casualty.  A word of explanation of methods of listing and of symbols used follows:"

"NAME:  Because of standardized usage for names in the Army, some individuals listed herein may not be shown under the name by which they were called in civilian life.  For instance, a man listed herein as "Smith, William P." may have been known to his friends as "Paul Smith" because in civilian life he did not choose to use the name "William".  In Army usage the first name is used in full and other given names follow in order as initials.  Names prefixed. . . . and absolute correctness in the order of alphabetizing names does not govern after the tenth letter of a name.  However, for all practical purposes the names will be in alphabetical order and cases will be extremely rare where a name will be more that one or two lines out of place."

"ARMY SERIAL NUMBER:  Because of the tremendous number of individuals who have passed through the Army, serial numbers are fiven to prevent confusion.  Using the name "William P. Smith" as above as an example, it was found that at the time of writing there were 84 men of this name in the Army, and several hundred men with the name "William Smith" with respect to initials.  In attempting to identify one of this number much confusion could arise, and this is obviated by the use of a serial number."

"Serial numbers are assigned with great care and according to a set of regulations.  Consecutive serial numbers, for example, are not assigned to twins since this might cause confusions of identity between two persons with the same birth date and same general physical characteristics."

"Generally speaking, numbers fall into two broad categories:  simple seven or eight digit numbers (in a few cases fewer digits) for male enlisted personnel, and prefixed serial numbers for other personnel.  Regular Army enlisted men who entered the service before the outset of Selective Service bear seven-digit or lower serial numbers, usually beginning with "6" or "7", as 6974426.  Men who enlisted in the Army of the United States have eight-digit numbers beginning with "1", the second digit indicating the Service Command of origin.  For example, the serial number 14066025 would indicate that the man enlisted in the Army of the United States in the Fourth Service Command (Southeastern U. S.).  Men called into federally recognized National Guard service received eight-digit numbers beginning with "2", the third digit representing the Service Command:  20107656 indicates a National Guardsman from New England (First Service Command).  Men inducted or enlisted through Selective Service were given eight-digit numbers beginning with "3" or "4", the second digit representing the Service Command.  The prefixed serial numbers for other than male enlisted personnel carry a designated letter:  O - (as in O-1574257) for male commissioned officers; W - for male Warrant officers; T - for Flight officers of the Army Air Forces; L - for commissioned officers of the Women's Army Corps; V - for WAC Warrant officers; A - for WAC enlisted women; R - for Hospital Dieticians, and M - for Physical Therapy Aides."

"GRADE:  This is synonymous with the misnomer "rank", and the abbreviations which may be found in this book are as follows:  GEN, General (four star); LT G, Lieutenant General, (three star); M G, Major General (two star); B G, Brigadier General (one star); COL, Colonel; LT C, Lieutenant Colonel; MAJ, Major; CAPT, Captain; 1 LT, First Lieutenant; 2 LT, Second Lieutenant; C WO, Chief Warrant Officer; WOJG, Warrant Officer Junior Grade; FL O, Flight Officer; AV C, Aviation Cadet; M SG, Master Sergeant; 1 SG, First Sergeant, T SG, Technical Sergeant; S SG, Staff Sergeant; TEC3, Technician Third Grade; SGT, Sergeant; TEC4, Technician Fourth Grade; CPL, Corporal; TEC5, Technician Fifth Grade; PFC, Private First Class; and PVT, Private."

"TYPE OF CASUALTY:  This indicated by the symbol at the far right of each column.  An individual who was killed in action, whether at the front or by enemy action in the rear areas, or if a prisoner of war, whether by air bombardment of his prison camp or by being shot while escaping, is designated "KIA".  Persons who were wounded and later died are marked "DOW" -- died of wounds.  Those who suffered fatal battle INJURIES as opposed to WOUNDS, in combat or in combat areas, and died in a line-of-duty status, are designated "DOI" -- died of injuries.  Other line-of-duty deaths, such as from sickness, homicide, suicide, or accidents outside combat areas (including training and maneuver deaths) are listed "DNB" -- died, non-battle.  Individuals who were determined to be dead under Public Law 490 are designated "FOD" -- finding of death.  Missing persons are marked with the single letter "M"."

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"Patriotic organizations will find these lists of value in establishing or checking honor rolls in their communities.  In this connection, it should be emphasized again that these lists are preliminary and will one day be superseded by a list which can be considered final.  Changes in status may occur between the time of publication of these lists and preparation of new ones, and actuarial tables indicate that new names will be added.  In some rare cases names of persons already dead may have been eliminated inadvertently from these lists."

The following comes from the U.S. Navy document:

"Inclusion of names in this State group has been determined solely by the residence of next of kin at the time of notification of the last wartime casualty status.  This listing does not necessarily represent the State of birth, legal residence, or official State credit according to service enlistment."

"Casualties listed represent only those on active duty in the U. S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard, resulting directly from enemy action or from operational activities against the enemy in war zones from December 7, 1941, to the end of the war.  Casualties in the Unites States area or as a result of disease, homicide, or suicide in any location are not included."

"This is a State summary taken from casualty lists released by the Navy Department, corrected as to the most recent casualty status and recorded residence of next of kin."

"Personnel listed as MISSING are under continuous investigation by the Navy Department, and therefore are subject to momentary status change.  Many of these will be officially presumed or determined dead.  Some will be found alive.  The last official notice to next of kin will take precedence over this list."

"The WOUNDED tabulation represents a count by individuals and includes only those whose next of kin were officially notified during the war.  It does not reflect the number of wounds inflicted by the enemy since many individuals were wounded more than once and many minor wounds were recorded only by Purple Heart awards in the fields of action.  Complete data on all wounded naval personnel will be available later."

This page was created by Timothy N. West and is copyrighted by him. All rights reserved.