Our Arklahoma Heritage: The Lost Son of Madison County - Pvt. Olaf Ray Haught’s final voyage
- Dennis McCaslin
- Jun 27, 2025
- 2 min read
In the somber hills and valleys of Madison County the name Olaf Ray Haught still echoes through generations -- not just as a son, a brother, or a soldier, but as a symbol of sacrifice etched into the soil of two continents.
Born on January 23, 1923, in the rural community of Pettigrew, Olaf was the eldest of six children born to Ray Jay Haught and Gladys Virgie Stapleton Haught. Raised in Witter, he grew up among the Ozark pines, where family, faith, and duty ran deep.
When war called, Olaf answered -- enlisting in the 300th Engineer Combat Battalion, a unit tasked with building the very roads and bridges that would carry Allied forces to victory.
On June 6, 1944, as Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, Pvt. Haught was among the reinforcements preparing to cross the English Channel. He boarded LST-523, a tank landing ship ferrying troops and medics to the front.
But just days later, on June 19, tragedy struck. The vessel hit a German mine and split in two, sinking within minutes. The chaos of wind, waves, and war left little hope. Olaf was declared Missing in Action, his body never recovered. Forty-one of his shipmates lost their lives either to the explosion or from drowning before rescue crews arrived.
Though his remains were lost to the sea, Olaf’s memory is anchored in two places. His name is inscribed on the Tablets of the Missing at the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France. Back home, a cenotaph stands in Witter Cemetery, placed lovingly by his family -- a stone for a son who never came home.
On September 21, 1944, the Madison County Record reported: > “Private Olaf R. Haught of Witter was one of thirty other Arkansas men reported missing in action in the European area last week...”
The announcement offered no details, only a void -- one that would never fully close for his mother, Gladys, or his siblings: Erma, Iva, William, Jay Dean, and Donald.
Pvt. Haught was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart, among other honors. His service, though brief, was part of a larger story -- one of courage, loss, and the enduring cost of freedom.
Today, as flags flutter over Normandy and wildflowers bloom in Witter, Pvt. Olaf Ray Haught’s name lives on-- not just in stone, but in the hearts of those who still HONOR the boy from Arkansas who sailed into history.
