Riggs, Herschel Mearl
Army Private 1st class

Herschel Mearl Riggs from Texas.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Sunday, July 16, 1950
Death details: On March 21, 2019, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified the remains of Private First Class Herschel Mearl Riggs, missing from the Korean War. Private First Class Riggs entered the U.S. Army from Texas and served with Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He went missing in action on July 16, 1950, during the Battle of Kum River, while attempting to break through an enemy roadblock, although the exact circumstances surrounding his loss are unknown. PFC Riggs’s body was recovered from the battlefield in October 1950, but they could not be identified and was eventually buried as an unknown at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii. In 2017, advances in forensic technology prompted the disinterment of these remains, which were eventually identified as those of PFC Riggs.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency