Floyd Allen Mitchell was born on November 16, 1901, in Barre, Washington County, Vermont. He was the son of James Edward Mitchell and Katherine Blanche Freeman Mitchell. He was the husband of Marion Elizabeth Tilden Mitchell. He graduated from West Point in 1924 and served in various Coast Artillery assignments, including Fort Totten, Fort DeRussy in Hawaii, Fort Monroe, Fort H. G. Wright, and as an instructor at West Point. He also earned an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from MIT in 1933 and graduated from the Command and General Staff School in 1937. He returned to West Point for a second tour as an instructor before departing in 1941 for duty in the Philippines.

At Corregidor, he commanded mine defenses and later served as battalion commander and training officer of the 91st Coast Artillery (Philippine Scouts). In April 1942, he displayed conspicuous gallantry by rescuing wounded men under heavy fire, earning the Silver Star. LTC Mitchell was captured after the fall of Corregidor on May 6, 1942. He endured imprisonment at Davao and PW Camp #1 in Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija. In late 1944, he was placed aboard the unmarked Japanese prison ship Oryoku Maru, which was mistakenly sunk by U.S. Navy aircraft from the USS Hornet, killing many POWs.

He was declared Missing in Action and officially declared dead on December 15, 1944. His name is memorialized in the Tablets of the Missing in the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Manila, Capital District, National Capital Region, Philippines. He also has a cenotaph in the United States Military Academy Post Cemetery and Elmwood Cemetery.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, weremember.abmc.gov