Archie E. Mitchell
| Archie Emerson Mitchell | |
|---|---|
| Born |
May 1, 1918 Franklin, Nebraska |
| Disappeared | May 30, 1962 (aged 44) Vietnam |
| Occupation | minister, missionary |
| Spouse(s) | Elsie Winters Mitchell Betty Patzke Mitchell |
The Reverend Archie Emerson Mitchell (born May 1, 1918) was a minister with the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA). He was born in Franklin, Nebraska. He attended Simpson Bible College and Nyack Missionary College. Mitchell served as a missionary to Vietnam working on the staff of the Ban Me Thuot Leprosarium when he was taken captive by the Viet Cong on May 30, 1962, along with Daniel Amstutz Gerber, and Dr. Eleanor Ardel Vietti. None of the three have been seen since.
On Saturday, May 5, 1945, Mitchell, who at that time was the pastor of the C&MA church in Bly, Oregon, led a Sunday School picnic up into the nearby mountains of southern Oregon. Accompanying Mitchell was his five-months-pregnant wife, Elsie (née Winters), and five children from the church. Up in the mountains Mitchell drove the car around by the road, while the others hiked through the woods. While Mitchell was getting the lunch out of the car near Leonard Creek, the others called to him and said that they had found what looked to be a balloon. Unbeknownst to the group, this was a dangerous Japanese incendiary balloon bomb. As Mitchell was warning them not to touch it, there was a large explosion. Mitchell ran to the spot and found the whole group dead. Killed in the explosion were Elsie Mitchell, 26, and the five children: Sherman Shoemaker, 11, Jay Gifford, 13, Edward Engen, 13, Joan Patzke, 13, and Dick Patzke, 14. They were the first and only known American civilians to be killed by enemy action in the Continental United States during World War II.
In 1950, the Weyerhaeuser timber company built a monument at the site of the explosion. The Mitchell Monument is constructed of native stone and displays a bronze plaque with the names and ages of the victims of the balloon bomb explosion. Weyerhaeuser donated the monument along with the surrounding land to the Fremont National Forest in 1998. The monument site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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