35th Infantry (Cacti) Regiment Association


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  SSG Rex B. Cox    In memory of our fallen brother

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; for he to-day that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother"



Easy Company
35th Infantry Regiment
World War II


"Not For Fame or Reward
Not For Place or For Rank
But In Simple Obedience To
Duty as They Understood It"





The 35th Infantry Regiment Association salutes our fallen brother, SSG Rex B. Cox, 38072209, who died in the service of his country on May 1st, 1945 in Luzon, The Philippines. The cause of death was listed as KIA-DOW. At the time of his death Rex was 26 years of age. He was from Carlsbad, New Mexico.

The decorations earned by SSG Rex B. Cox include: the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the Asiatic-Pacific Service Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal.


Rex was re-buried July 27, 1948 in Carlsbad, NM Municipal Cemetery. He is buried next to his wife Betty, Marie Elizabeth Cutbirth Cox, who passed away in 1955. They had one son, Don, who passed away in 1992.

(Ref: THE DAILY CURRENT-ARGUS, Carlsbad, Eddy County, New Mexico, dated for Monday, May 28, 1945, front page, reads as follows:
STAFF SGT. REX B. COX
DIES OF WOUNDS

S/Sgt. Rex B. Cox died of wounds received on Luzon, May 1, the War Department has notified his wife, who lives at 506 North Mesquite. Sgt. Cox is the son of Frank Cox, Dickson Addition, and Mrs. P.C. Maynard, of Fluvanna, Texas.

He is survived by his wife, his parents, a son, Don, 17 months old, and three brothers, Don, who is a prisoner in Japan, Murle, who is in the Merchant Marines, and Clyde, of Carlsbad.

(Ref: THE DAILY CURRENT-ARGUS, Carlsbad, Eddy County, New Mexico, dated for Thursday, June 24, 1948, front page, reads as follows:
BODY OF SGT. COX
ENROUTE TO U.S.

The body of Staff Sgt. Rex B. Cox, 25, who was killed in action in the Philippines on May 1, 1945, is enroute to the United States, Mrs. Betty Cox Lunsford of 521 West Stevens Street was informed today by military authorities.

No definite date for arrival of the body has been set. It will be accompanied by a military escort.

Mrs. Lunsford, formerly Mrs. Betty Cox, remarried recently.

Sgt. Cox, who had lived in Carlsbad for more than six years before he entered Army service on Jan. 3, 1942, was buried in the United States Cemetery at Santa Barbara in the Philippines. He was born in Roswell.

Sgt. Cox also is survived by a four-year-old son, Donald Rex Cox; his mother, Mrs. T.C. Maynard of Fluvanna, Tex.; his father, Frank Cox of Carlsbad, three brothers, Murel and Clyde Cox of Carlsbad and Don Cox of Fluvanna.

(Ref: THE DAILY CURRENT-ARGUS, Carlsbad, Eddy County, New Mexico, dated for Sunday, July 25, 1948, front page, reads as follows:
SGT. COX FUNERAL
TO BE WEDNESDAY

The body of Staff Sgt. Rex Cox, 25, who was killed in action in the Philippines on may 1, 1945, will arrive in Carlsbad Tuesday, according to the West Funeral Home.

Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday in West's Chapel, Dr. W.S. Dando, retired Presbyterian minister, will officiate. Veterans of Foreign Wars will provide a military escort and have graveside services in Carlsbad Cemetery. A military escort will accompany the body.

Survivors include Mrs. Betty Cox Lunsford, 512 West Stevens Street, who recently remarried; Donald Rex Cox, a four-year-old son; his mother, Mrs. T.C. Maynard, Fluvanna, Tex.; his father, Frank Cox, Carlsbad; three brothers, Murle and Clyde of Carlsbad and Don Cox of Fluvanna.