An area man has been inducted into the Missouri National Guard Hall of Fame.
The Missouri National Guard Hall of Fame (MONGHOF) was formed by a group of Missouri Veterans in 2020. The Hall of Fame is currently located at the Adair County Historical Society in Kirksville.
The 2023 class includes Lt. Robert Elwell, of the Warrensburg area, who was 17 years old when he was inducted into the U.S. Army in July 1950, shortly after his graduation from high school. After training at Fort Riley, Kansas, he was deployed to Korea and earned a Purple Heart and Bronze Star Medal for heroic achievement while serving with the 7th Regiment. In 1951, newspapers reported that the 18-year-old Elwell was believed to be the youngest master sergeant in the U.S. Army. He would go on to marry, become father to two daughters and receive appointment as a lieutenant with the Missouri National Guard. Elwell was only 30 years old when he was killed while training with the Missouri National Guard in 1963.
Other inductees include:
-Brigadier General Harvey C. Clark, who was born in 1869 in Bates County, Missouri, and attended Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington. He became a member of the Missouri Militia (forerunner of the Missouri National Guard) in 1888 and is credited with organizing the Sixth Missouri Volunteer Infantry during the Spanish-American War. Clark went on to command Missouri National Guard troops during the Punitive Expedition to Mexico and in 1918 was appointed as adjutant general of the state guard. A lawyer by trade, Gen. Clark died from meningitis in 1921. Camp Clark near Nevada, Missouri, was named in his honor.
-CW5 Paula Prosser graduated from Jefferson City High School in 1974 and then went on to complete boot camp with the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) at Ft. McClellan, Alabama. She then attended training to become a military policeman at Ft. Gordon, Georgia, during which the WACs were disbanded. From there, she finished out her enlistment as a military policeman with the US. Army at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. She then enlisted in the Missouri National Guard and in 2017 completed a military career of more than forty years, which included a deployment to Kosovo. She retired at the rank of Chief Warrant Officer Five.
-Lt. Col. Robert A. Madden. After serving as a fighter pilot in World War II, Robert A. Madden Sr. of University City later became a flight leader in the 110th Observation Squadron of the Missouri Air National Guard. He was recalled to active duty during the Korean War and was only 26 years old and on a scouting mission when his plane was shot down by ground fire over Korea on June 1, 1952. Captured by Communists, he was held in solitary confinement for stretches as long as seven weeks and constantly questioned. Madden was one of the prisoners released as part of the Korean armistice POW exchange and reunited with his wife and family upon his return to St. Louis in September 1953. He remained in the U.S. Air Force and retired as a lieutenant colonel. The 74-year-old veteran died in 1999 and is buried in Barrancas National Cemetery in Pensacola. Florida.
The public is invited to attend the Induction Ceremony, as part of a Veteran’s Day memorial, on Saturday, November 11th at the Soldiers Memorial Military Museum at 10:30 am in St. Louis.