Private First Class Luther Eugene Caughron was born Jan. 19, 1916 to Caswell Lafayette and Mary Ellen Sise Caughron in Sevier County. He married Dorothy Eleanor Cowden (1919-2006) in 1939 and in 1942 there only child Luther Eugene Caughron (d. 1991) was born. He enlisted in the Marine Corps on Nov. 18, 1943 and served in the Pacific theater in the 4th Marine Corps, 1st Marine Division, 2nd Battalion, Co. E.
According to a Knoxville News Sentinel article at the time, on October 11, 1944, Caughron was caught in Japanese machine gun fire in battle on .Peleliu Island. However, before he was mortally wounded, “he had directed fire of his own troops that later in the day led to the extermination of most of the enemy. The remainder fled. For these heroic actions, PFC Caughron was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and the Silver Star. He is buried in Bethel Cemetery in Jones Cove.
Caughron’s brother James Wiley Caughron also died in service in France in 1945. Luther Caughron’s memorial page at the ETVMA may be found here: https://www.etvma.org/veterans/luther-e-caughron-10735/
