Two more portraits have been added to a local memorial for fallen soldiers.
The Collin County Commissioners Court met in a special session on June 19 to accept the addition of the portraits to the County’s Fallen Warriors Project collection.
Fallen Warriors was founded in 2013 and features portraits of soldiers from Collin County who died in the line of duty. The goal of the project is to depict as many faces as possible of soldiers whose names have been engraved on the “Wall of Honor” at the Veterans Memorial Park in McKinney, according to the county’s website.
A total of 420 names are engraved on the wall. The growing collection of portraits is located on the first floor of the Russell A. Steindam Courts Building.
The portraits are painted by project co-founder Colin Kimball, himself a veteran of the United States Airforce.
Kimball told Fox 4 News that he intends to paint the portraits of the more than 400 soldiers named on the Wall of Honor.
“The idea of people forgetting about them just was distressing to me. So now, I get to honor all of our veterans from our county,” said Kimball, according to Fox 4 News. “And so that distress is no longer present in my life.”
A press release from Collin County reports that the new portraits are of 21-year-old James Oliver Trosclair from McKinney and 22-year-old Pedro Renaldo Perez from Plano.
Trosclair was a member of the United States Air Force as an Airman 1st Class, 371st Bomb Squadron member, a 307th Bombardment Wing member, and a radio operator, according to the county. He was shot down in September 1952 during the Korean War on a bombing run on the Suiho Hydroelectric Plant in North Korea.
Trosclair was initially declared “missing in action” but was later pronounced dead in February 1954. His body was never recovered.
Perez was a member of the Army National Guard, a Sergeant, and a medic assigned to the 156th Engineer Battalion, the 56th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, and the 36th Infantry Division. He was killed in 2022 while on active duty in the Texas National Guard.
He was serving on the Operation Lonestar joint task force when he was injured in a traffic accident and died due to his injuries.
The Russell A. Steindam Courts Building is located at 2100 Bloomdale Rd., McKinney.
