Coulter, Richard Charles
Army Sergeant 1st class

Richard Charles Coulter, age 29, from Monongalia County Everettsville, West Virginia .

Parents: Sherman S. Coulter

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Saturday, July 29, 1950
Death details: On July 28, 1950, members of the 3rd Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, were in defensive positions near Kochang, South Korea, west of the Naktong River. They served as part of a defensive formation soon to be known as the Pusan Perimeter, meant to delay the North Korean People’s Army’s (NKPA) advance through South Korea long enough so that reinforcements could arrive at Pusan Harbor. That night, members of the 34th Infantry reported seeing a procession of enemy tanks and infantry assemble behind a roadblock west of Kochang. The next morning, this NKPA force attacked the 34th Infantry positions from two directions. Continuous enemy fire eventually forced the regiment to withdraw to the east; however, Company I was cut off by the NKPA. A counterattack was successful in rescuing all but one platoon from Company I, though many men were killed or went missing during these actions. Master Sergeant Richard Charles Coulter entered the U.S. Army from West Virginia and was a member of K Company, 3rd Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was killed during the early morning hours on July 29, 1950, when his company became involved in a firefight just west of the Hwang River near Kochang, South Korea. His remains were not recovered at the time of his loss, and could not be located or identified following the war. He is still unaccounted-for. Today, Master Sergeant Coulter 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, Hinton Daily News (1950)