The following news release was submitted by the Cobb County Genealogical Society.

This past year, 2025, marked the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. World War II ended for the United States with Japan’s formal surrender on September 2, 1945, aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. During the war, over 420,000 Americans lost their lives serving their country. Sadly, many of the individual stories from World War II have been lost, and many of these fallen heroes have been forgotten. More lamentably, many of these veterans were too young to be married and have children, so there are no direct descendants looking to write their story.

For the last five years, volunteers across the country supporting a project called Stories Behind the Stars have been documenting the individual stories of these fallen heroes. These stories are loaded onto Fold3 Memorials and are accessible via Find a Grave. The goal of the project is that family members and visitors can go to any World War II fallen grave, type in the service member’s name into the Find a Grave app on their smartphone, and get a link to the soldier’s story on Fold3.

The project started in 2016 when World War II history buff Don Milne noticed that online information about fallen soldiers did not normally include many personal details. He began researching World War II fallen as a pastime and published his stories on their 100th birthdays on Facebook. His efforts attracted many readers, and he eventually established the Stories Behind the Stars project, inviting others to help write the stories. Today, there are countless volunteers across the country, organized into state groups and special projects. These stories are made possible by volunteers from all 50 states and more than a dozen other countries, and more than 70,000 stories of World War II fallen have been written.

One of the volunteers in Georgia, Loren Plisco, is also a board member of the Cobb County Genealogical Society (CCGS). Early in 2025, Loren was reviewing a book compiled and published by CCGS in 1994, Cobb County Georgia Cemeteries, Volume III, which listed all those buried at Marietta National Cemetery. The book noted that there were many World War II fallen buried or memorialized at the cemetery. Loren encouraged CCGS to adopt those World War II fallen at Marietta National Cemetery so their stories could be told using the resources and tools provided by Stories Behind the Stars.

After researching available cemetery records, Loren found that there were approximately 360 World War II fallen in the cemetery. A list of the World War II fallen at Marietta National Cemetery was created and posted on the CCGS website. This list provides basic information about each fallen service member, such as date of birth, date of death, headstone location, and place of death. The stories typically include family history information such as parents and siblings, where they lived prior to joining the military, and details about their service and assigned units.

For the past year, Loren has coordinated the work of several other volunteers to prepare stories about these fallen heroes. In December 2025, the stories for every fallen soldier at Marietta National Cemetery were completed.

As visitors walk through the cemetery and read the stories of these fallen, they also walk through the many battles, campaigns, and tragic events of the global war. The cemetery includes fallen heroes from the first day of the war for the United States, December 7, 1941, at Pearl Harbor, and from the last days of the war in the Pacific in August 1945. There are service members from the North Africa, Sicily, and Italy campaigns; from the Battle of the Atlantic; from D-Day and the Allied advance through France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany in the European Theater, including the Battle of the Bulge. There are fallen from the Pacific Theater, including Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Peleliu, the Philippines, and Tinian.

In addition to those who died in combat operations, there are service members who were killed by disease, aircraft accidents, accidental explosions, and training accidents. Some died as prisoners of war. Fallen heroes from the Coast Guard, Merchant Marine, Army, Army Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps are represented.

Among the 360 World War II fallen honored at the cemetery are four pairs of brothers. One of those pairs is Albert Felix Herren Jr. and William Fielder Herren. The 1920 U.S. Federal Census shows the Herren family living in Adsboro, Morgan County, Georgia. The 1930 U.S. Federal Census shows the family living in Atlanta, Georgia.

According to newspaper articles, William was an accomplished boxer who won the Golden Gloves City Championship in 1931. He graduated from Tech High School and enlisted in the U.S. Navy on August 31, 1935, joining the naval aviation community. He qualified as a Naval Aviation Pilot and was assigned before the war to a patrol squadron at the Cavite Naval Base in Manila, Philippines.

Albert also attended Tech High School. After turning 18 in February 1940, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy in Macon, Georgia. Albert requested assignment to his brother’s squadron, and the request was approved.

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Japan also attacked the Philippines. Aviation Machinist’s Mate First Class William Herren went missing in action after an air engagement on February 4, 1942. Aviation Machinist’s Mate Third Class Albert Herren was wounded in Manila on February 26, 1942, and taken to a hospital on Corregidor. He became a prisoner of war around May 6, 1942.

In the fall of 1944, the Japanese began transferring prisoners from the Philippines to forced labor camps. Approximately 1,800 prisoners were loaded aboard the freighter Arisan Maru, which departed Manila around October 10, 1944. On October 24, 1944, the Arisan Maru was attacked by the U.S. submarine USS Shark (SS-314) and sank approximately two hours later. Albert Herren was lost at sea.

William Herren and Albert Herren have cenotaphs at Marietta National Cemetery in Marietta, Georgia, and at East View Cemetery in DeKalb County, Georgia, near their parents. They are also memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing in Manila at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.

CCGS has a quarterly publication, Family Tree Quarterly, which is available to members. Over the past two years, Loren has authored several articles for the publication about some of the Marietta National Cemetery fallen, with an upcoming article focused on the brothers honored at the cemetery.