Godwin, Howard Jr.
Army Private 1st class

Howard Jr. Godwin, age 32, from Taylor County Grafton, West Virginia .

Parents: Estel May Godwin

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Thursday, July 20, 1950
Death details: On April 22, 2024, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Corporal Howard Godwin Jr., missing from the Korean War. Corporal Godwin joined the U.S. Army from West Virginia and served in A Company, 1st Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. In July 1950, this unit held a defensive position near Taejon, South Korea. An offensive by North Korean People’s Army forces overran several American positions and forced U.S. troops in the area to withdraw. Cpl Godwin was reported missing in action on July 20, but the exact circumstances of his loss are unknown. On January 1, 1951, a set of unknown remains was recovered in the area where Cpl Godwin’s unit had been fighting. The remains were eventually interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. On July 15, 2019, DPAA personnel exhumed this set of remains for further study as part of a larger project to identify Korean War casualties. The laboratory analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available established that the remains were those of Cpl Godwin. Corporal Godwin 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, Beckley Post Herald (1954)