Emrick, Howard Wayne
Army Private

Howard Wayne Emrick from Allen County Fort Wayne, Indiana .

Parents: Clarence N. Emrick

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Thursday, July 20, 1950
Death details: On July 20, 1950, the 3rd Battalion of the U.S. 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, was holding a defensive line in South Korea overlooking the Taejon Airport, northeast of the city. When enemy tanks broke through the line near the airport, U.S. troops were ordered to fall back through Taejon. The 3rd Battalion was ordered to lead the convoy out of Taejon, but ran into a series of collapsed structures and roadblocks that broke up the column. U.S. forces were unable to break through these roadblocks, and to avoid capture soldiers moved off-road and began filtering through the countryside in small groups. Private First Class Howard Wayne Emrick entered the U.S. Army from Indiana and served in L Company, 3rd Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He went missing in action on July 20 during the withdrawal from Taejon, though the exact details surrounding his loss are unknown. After the war, American forces found the last name “Emrick” written on a school blackboard in Seoul with the names of other prisoners or war; however, he was never returned to U.S. custody and there were no eyewitness reports of his fate. His remains were not identified among those returned to U.S. custody following the war, and he is still unaccounted for. Today, Private First Class Emrick is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. His name is also inscribed on the Korean War Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC, which was updated in 2022 to include the names of the fallen.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, UPI (1954)