Dale County soldiers among WWII Gold Star men

David C.L. Chalker of Daleville was a 24-year-old Army corporal when he died during World War II.

The son of Henry Benjamin and Willie Howell Chalker and husband of Sophia L. Starling Chalker Seay, he was one of seven American soldiers and 11 Filipinos killed in the crash of a C-47 transport plane in the mountains of Luzon in the Philippine Islands on March 23, 1946. He is buried in Pleasant Hill Methodist Church Cemetery in Ozark.

William Allen Dean of Daleville was a 32-year-old Navy boatswain when he was killed in action as Japanese Kamikaze pilots attacked his ship, the USS Tennessee (BB-43), on April 12, 1945.

The son of William Lorenzo and Ada Costillo Skipper Dean and husband of Ora Irene Hood Dean Machado, Chalker was the father of Robert Arnold, Michael Bruce and William Allen Dean Jr. He is buried at sea.

Twenty-six-year-old Army Staff Sgt. Woodrow Thompson of Clayhatchee received amphibious training at Camp Gordon Johnston in Carabelle, Fla. He was killed instantly by the shock of an exploding bomb shell on June 6, 1944 while serving in France as a staff sergeant with the 4th Infantry Division. The son of John Edward and Dora Lee Odom Thompson is buried at the County Line Baptist Church Cemetery in Dale County.

Chalker, Dean and Thompson are among 61 Gold Star soldiers featured in a second book researched and compiled by Dale County natives Berta Blackwell, Kay Kingsley and Donna Snell.

It is their second such project initiated to ensure that the men from Dale County who made the supreme sacrifice for their fellow man will never be forgotten. The first project, completed last year, is the collection of Dale County Gold Star soldiers from World War I.

The term Gold Star soldier is a reference to a tradition that began in World War I as families and friends of active duty service members displayed white flags bordered in red with a blue star in the center. A gold star replacing the blue in the flag indicates those who have given their lives for their country.

“The idea for the World War II book did not evolve until some time after the publication of our World War I book,” Blackwell said. “Researching and writing about the ‘Great War’ soldiers was such a joy.”

The impetus for the first project began after Blackwell and Snell, as representatives of the Ozark-Dale County Public Library, participated in the three-day World War I Centennial Workshop in 2017 at Auburn University’s Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities.

“The book was so well-received and appreciated by the descendants, historians and folks in and around the Wiregrass,” Blackwell said. “It seemed only natural to begin the search for our WWII Gold Stars.” 

World War II, called “the greatest conflict in human history” began in 1939 with Germany’s invasion of Poland. It involved over 100 million people who served in the Axis and Allied forces and resulted in 50 to 70 million military and civilian deaths before its end in 1945.

The United States’ involvement in the war began on Dec. 8, 1941 when Congress declared war on Japan in retaliation for her attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Three days later Germany and Italy declared war on the United States and, for the first time in her history, the United States would fight a two-front war.

Dale County’s Gold Star soldiers were among the multitude of men and women who, through their shared alliances, brought about the final victory. Four died in Italy at Anzio and in the Apennine Mountains, 12 died in France in Brittany and on the beaches of Normandy, four in Belgium and the Netherlands, two on the German frontier and one in Yugoslavia.

Six Dale County military men died in the Philippine Islands, two in the Solomon Islands on Bougainville and New Georgia, two in the Marianas on Guam and Saipan, one in New Guinea, one on Angaur Island, one on Iwo Jima and three on Okinawa.

Several of the men were lost at sea in the Caribbean, Mediterranean, North Sea and Pacific. Four died in Japanese prison camps—two in camps in the Philippine Islands and two in camps in Japan.

Sixty of the 61 men in the new publication are from Dale County. One man from New York is included because he married a well-known educator in the Ozark school system and has also been included in other Dale County war memorials, Blackwell explained.

Forty-four of the Dale County Gold Star military men served in the Army, eight in the U.S. Army Air Forces, two in the Marines, one in the Merchant Marines and five in the Navy.

“Researching and compiling these books is definitely a labor of a lot of love,” said Snell. “We always fall in love with all the men.

“The best part of all of this is being able to tell their family members things they may not know about the heroes in their family and the community what they did not know about the sacrifice and contribution they have made for our freedom,” Snell added.

Blackwell agreed. “Throughout the past year we have been touched by the family members of these men who shared information with us about their loved ones,” she said.

Preserving memories of the service rendered by the first generation of Americans to fight a worldwide war before they are lost forever is part of what drove Blackwell and Snell to their first project that took some two years to complete. “We created a spreadsheet with about 829 names of Dale County soldiers who served in World War I,” Blackwell said. Learning the names of the Dale County Gold Star men, the women created biographical sketches containing each soldier’s family history and military information such as induction date, unit designation, training camp attended, overseas locations, military engagements, awards and the date, cause and location of death.

As the fallen soldiers came to life through the research, Blackwell said that her sister, Kay Kingsley, volunteered to get involved in the project. She researched and wrote summaries of the battles in which each man was involved, formatted the book, and made sure that the sources of information were cited in footnotes.

Those interested in more information about “Gold Star Soldiers of World War II from Dale County” may contact Blackwell at [email protected].

“Our whole purpose in doing this was to honor the soldiers so that these guys are not forgotten,” Blackwell said. “These courageous sons of Dale County made the supreme sacrifice.”

Snell agreed, pointing out the words to a poem selected to adorn the book’s back cover. “When you go home, tell them of us and say ‘For your tomorrow, we gave our today.’

The poem is inscribed on the memorial for the World War II Battle of Kohima, fought against the Japanese by British and Indian troops.

Dale County Gold Star soldiers from World War II

• Lloyd Stewart Allen -Clopton

• Wilburn Ammons -Dale County

• Hubert Clayton Austin -Midland City

• Earnest Linwood Averett -Daleville

• Jesse James Batchelor Jr. -Ariton

• William Elget Bell -Bell’s Crossroads

• Edward Harold Bess -Midland City

• Malcolm Osroe Blackman -Ozark

• Willie Edmon Bludsworth -Ozark

• Henry Ray Bowden -Newton

• Charles Edward “Jack” Brabham -Coffee/Dale County

• David C.L. Chalker -Daleville

• Clifton Harris Chambers -Ariton

• Charles Britt Clark -Arguta

• Henry Britt Clements -Ozark

• Paul Lelon Colston -Dale County

• William Henry Condrey Jr.-Ariton/Midland City

• Lee Asbury Cramer Sr. -Elmira, NY

• Zedd Davis -Ozark

• William Allen Dean -Daleville

• James William Edgar -Ariton

• Quinn T. Edmondson-Daleville

• Marcus Anthony Faulkner -Pinckard

• William Lemuel Faust -Ariton

• Jerald Bee Fleming -Ozark

• William “Willie” Fleming -unknown

• William Pelah Gilley Sr. -Wicksburg

• Willie Eujene Gray -Pinckard

• William Calvin Herring -Midland City

• Lewie Frank Ivey -Ozark

• Charles Howard Jackson Jr.-Ariton

• Ransom Stevenson Jacobs -Rocky Head

• Grady M. Johnson -Ariton

• Henry Woods Johnson -Ozark

• William W. Jones -Midland City

• Johnnie Dallis Lindsay -Echo

• Mitchell Braxton McGill -Echo

• Shelley Roy McKeller -Ariton

• Robert Louis McSwean -Ozark

• Lonnie H. Melton -Mabson

• Henry Clinton Mercer, Jr. -Midland City

• Joseph Melvin Mercer-Ozark

• Leslie Wesley Mixon -Ozark

• Paul Jackson Mullins -Dale County

• Roy Lee Newman -Midland City

• Robert Gordon Patterson -Daleville

• Acey Franklin Peacock -Arguta

• John Jackson Peacock -Midland City

• Lynnwood Clark Pitman -Ozark

• Kyle Capell Riley Sr. -Echo

• Travis Scott -Ariton

• Neal Cuthbert Snell -Asbury

• William Lamar Snellgrove -Rocky Head

• Emanuel Thomas -Ozark

• Woodrow Thompson -Clayhatchee

• Jack Trammel -Sylvan Grove Community

• Robert Holton Weeks -Wicksburg

• Samuel Henry Whitlock Jr. -Echo

• Lamuel Lamaskas Whitman -Post Oak Community

• William Fremont Wiggins -Echo

• Harry Glenn Windham -Sylvan Grove