January 21, 1941 to September 7, 1944
Later he attended Snow College in Ephraim, Utah. He was a star basketball player in both high school and college. On January 21, 1941, Russell enlisted in the United States Army and was sent to Camp in California, later returning to Ft. Douglas in Salt Lake City, Utah where he enlisted in the Army Air Corp for three years. He was sent to the Philippine Islands and the last letter received from Russell was dated April 26, 1942. A telegram was received by his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Soren P. Jensen to inform them that Russell was taken prisoner of war by the Japanese. Russell was reported "missing in action" after the surrender of Corregidor (May 6, 1942). The Japanese forced about 60,000 prisoners to march 70 miles to prison camps. It was called the "Bataan Death March" .About 10,000 of the prisoners died from starvation or maltreatment. Russell survived this march. The date of receipt of this final evidence was February 19,1945, the date upon which his pay was terminated and his accounts were closed. A letter by Major General J.A. Ulio on February 19, 1945, by the War Department, notified Russell's mother that an official list of prisoners of war who were on the Japanese freighter which was transporting American Prisoners of war from the Philippines was sunk on September 7, 1944.
The letter stated, "A number of survivors were returned to the military control of our forces, but it is with deep regret that I must inform you that your son is among those listed as lost when that sinking occurred. The War Department regrets its inability to entertain a probability of his survival and must consider him to have died in action on September 7, 1944". The information available to the War Department was that the vessel sailed from Tavao, Mindanao, August 20, 1944 with 750 prisoners of war aboard. The vessel was sunk by torpedoes on September 7, 1944 off the western shores of Mindanao and indications are that relatively few of the prisoners had opportunity to leave the sinking ship and of those who did, many of them were killed by enemy gun fire. A small number managed to reach shore and a close watch for others was kept for several days. There is no information as to what happened to the individual prisoners, but known circumstances lead to the regrettable conclusion that all of the unaccounted for prisoners lost their lives at the time of the sinking.
There is a monument in Manilla, The Philippine Islands, with the names of all those "missing in action" servicemen whose bodies were never found. Russell's name is found on the marker. His name is also found on a monument in Memory Grove in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Centerfield Legion Post was organized in 1947 and was given the name of Oliver-Russell Post #105. Oliver Jensen died during The 1st World War. Russell Jensen gave his life in World War II thus the Centerfield American Legion honored these two men by naming their Post , "Oliver-Russell".