Five names to be added to WWII monument

Shelby Reeves, Chillicothe Gazette
·2 min read
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The Veteran's Memorial Park honors Ross County citizens who served in foreign wars. The park is located at the corner of Park Street and Chestnut Street in Chillicothe.
The Veteran's Memorial Park honors Ross County citizens who served in foreign wars. The park is located at the corner of Park Street and Chestnut Street in Chillicothe.

CHILLICOTHE — Thanks to advancements in technology five new names will soon be added to the World War II monument in Chillicothe.

Bob Leach from the Ross County Veterans Council said new technology, like the internet, and new census information that was previously unavailable helped uncover the names.

Sgt Roy H. Bartram was born in 1908 in New Mexico but moved to Ross County in the 1930s. Bartram trained as a radio operator in the Army Air Corps. In 1943 he was sent to Algeria and eventually moved to Italy. A plane carrying him was hit by an antiaircraft attack. His body remains in an American cemetery overseas.

PFC Taylor Bartram was the brother of Roy and joined the Army in 1941. His unit was sent to Omaha Beach in 1944 where Bartram was wounded in the thigh and received a Purple Heart. After returning to service later that year he was placed near the German border in Belgium where he ultimately died during the second day of The Battle of the Bulge. He was posthumously given a second Purple Heart.

PFC Harrison B. Richart was born in 1919 in Jackson County and moved to Ross County in 1933. When he joined the Army in 1942 he listed Ross County as his permanent residence. He died while serving on July 3, 1944, in France during an 11-day battle where over 5,000 men were killed, wounded or captured. His body remained buried in France in the Normandy American cemetery.

PVT Paul J. Richendollar was born in Kentucky in 1925 but moved with his family to Ross County in 1935. Richendollar worked as a farm laborer who was drafted in 1944. In the Army, he was sent to Europe serving in Germany, Belgium and France. He was killed during a clash with German troops in 1945 and his body was returned to the United States in 1948 where he was buried in Sugar Creek cemetery.

T/5 Robert L. Skiver was born in Ross County in 1918 and joined the Army in 1942 serving on a Tank Battalion in Hawaii and moving towards the Phillippines. In 1944 during a non-combat incident Skiver drowned, his body was not recovered and he is listed on the walls of the Missing in Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines.

The council does not currently have a date that the names will be added but Leach said they are hoping to have it completed by Memorial Day.

Shelby Reeves is a reporter for the Chillicothe Gazette. You can email her at SReeves@gannett.com or follow her on Twitter @Shelby_Reeves_

This article originally appeared on Chillicothe Gazette: New names to be added to local WWII monument