Hardy, Edgar Warren
Army Sergeant 1st class

Edgar Warren Hardy from Oklahoma, LeFlore county.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: September 30, 1951

Death details: On July 11, 1950, the U.S. Army’s 21st Infantry Regiment, which had arrived in Korea six days earlier, was placed in defensive positions near the town of Chochiwon, South Korea. The regiment was not at full strength and lacked artillery and anti-tank weapons. That day, they were attacked by North Korean forces and were forced to withdraw to avoid being surrounded, as well as to buy time until they could be reinforced and resupplied.

Master Sergeant Edgar Warren Hardy, who joined the U.S. Army from Oklahoma, served with I Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was captured by enemy forces on July 12, as his unit engaged the North Korean People’s Army near Chochiwon, South Korea. He was forced to march north to the Apex prison camps in North Korea. He reached the prison camp at An-dong in the spring of 1951, and died of malnutrition and dysentery on September 30, 1951. He was buried in the camp cemetery; however, his remains were not identified among those returned to U.S. custody after the cease fire. Today, Master Sergeant Hardy is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency