The North Texas Fallen Warrior Portrait Project will present the portraits of five Collin County men who died while in the service of our country in a ceremony at 11 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, at the Russell A. Steindam Courts Building. The portraits will bring the total number of portraits installed in the "Hall of Heroes" to 105. The portrait displays have been located in the first floor hallways of the courthouse since 2013.
The newest portraits include:
NIMROD S. SHIPP – 23, Cook First Class, United States Merchant Marines. Served on the SS Gulfbelle transporting fuel from a refinery on the eastern seaboard toward the Panama Canal, ultimately for a destination in the Pacific Theater. Traveling at night without navigation lights as a precaution due to the Nazi U-boats that operated in those waters, the Gulfbelle collided with the SS Gulfland off the coast of Palm Beach, Florida. Civilians on shore heard the cries for help as each ship carrying fuel erupted into flames. Shipp was one of 44 sailors to perish on the Gulfbelle. His remains have never been recovered.
LOUIS F. BASS – 23, 2nd Lieutenant 577th Squadron of the 392nd Bomb Group, Eighth Army Air Force. His bomb group took off from Wendling Airfield in Norfolk, England, on 21 April 1944. They encountered severe icing conditions at altitude; the entire Bomb Group of more than 40 aircraft were forced to abandon the mission and return to base. His B-24, nicknamed “Kentucky Girl,” suffered a catastrophic condition that resulted in an explosion. Bass was unable to bail out and is one of the eight crewmen from Kentucky Girl memorialized in a memorial at the site of the crash near the village of North Tottenham near Norwich, England. He is buried in Altoga Cemetery.
RAY W. HENSLEE – 23, 1st Lieutenant 439th Bomb Squadron of the 319th Bomb Group of the 12th US Army Air Force. He was a navigator on the B-26 Marauder who had recently arrived in England. On 12 November 1942, his B-26 41-17777, christened as “Boogie Woogie,” was shot down by a Nazi ME-109 near Cherbourg, France, as his bomb group was transitioning to Algeria to participate in Operation Torch. The commander of the Bomb Group was aboard Henslee’s aircraft. A memorial was erected to honor Henslee and his crewmen in Les Pieuz, France. He is buried in the Cambridge American Cemetery in Cambridge, England.
MAURICE JOHNSON – 30, Major 61st Troop Carrier Squadron, 314th Troop Carrier Group, United
States Air Force. He was a Veteran of WWII and earned a Distinguished Flying Cross. During the Korean
War, while flying a mission on 29 March 1951, the right engine of the C-119 tail number 8345 fell off in
flight. He ordered his crew to bail out, and he stayed with the plane. He was killed when the plane crashlanded near Hongchon, Korea. He is buried in Restland Cemetery in Dallas.
VERNON W. WOODY – 20, Corporal 2nd Battalion 34th Armored Regiment, known as the
“Dreadnoughts” of the 25th Infantry Division United States Army. While on a mission as part of
Operation Cliff Dweller, on the rugged, steep Black Virgin Mountain in Tay Ninh Province of South
Vietnam on 30 January 1970, Woody was run over by an armored vehicle. He was married and became a
father of a daughter who never knew him. He is buried in Ridgeview Memorial Park in Allen.
