Roger Youderian (January 21, 1924 January 8, 1956) was an Armenian-American evangelical Christian missionary to Ecuador who, along with four others, was killed while attempting to evangelize the Huaorani people through efforts known as Operation Auca.Youderian was born in Sumatra, Montana, of Armenian descent. He contracted polio at the age of nine, crippling him slightly. He overcame the effects of the disease during high school, making it possible for him to play basketball. After graduating from Fergus High School in Lewistown, Montana in 1941, he attended Montana State College (now Montana State University) until he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1943.As a paratrooper stationed in England, he assisted an Army chaplain and eventually became an evangelical Christian. In 1944, he participated in the Rhine jump and the Battle of the Bulge, and then returned to Montana in 1946.