Monroe Bryan, Jr. served in the U.S. Army Air Forces as a Sergeant in the 728th Bomber Squadron, 452nd Bomb Group, Heavy, 8th Air Force during World War II. He was killed on March 18, 1945 in an airplane crash over the English Channel while on a bombing mission to Western Europe. He is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at Cambridge American Cemetery, Cambridge, England. He received an Air Medal and a Purple Heart.