Rudolph Ballough
MM1c | Lost at Sea (19 January 1942)
Overview
Rudolph Ballough was one of three men who did not reach shore.
PT-31 Incident
Remained with the raft and disappeared before dawn.
Wartime Fate
Listed as missing in DeLong’s roster and among the three men absent after the raft breakup; his ABMC Manila American Cemetery record identifies him as Missing In Action, entered from New York, awarded the Purple Heart, and still without a rosette, while DPAA’s New York WWII not-recovered list gives him as a United States Navy loss dated 22 January 1942 in the South Pacific Ocean, preserving the formal missing-status trail even though the location wording is less precise than the PT-31 narrative.
Research Notes
Confidence: Confirmed
Absence of all later records strongly supports this conclusion.