Cowart, Charles C
Army Corporal

Charles C Cowart, age 24, from Los Angeles County Torrance, California .

Parents: Teresa Cowart

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Friday, September 1, 1950
Death details: In late August 1950, U.S. forces in Korea were primarily stationed along the Pusan Perimeter, a defensive formation around the town of Pusan, South Korea, with the outer edge along the eastern shore of the Naktong River. The perimeter was intended to prevent forces from the North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) from reaching the harbor in Pusan. On August 31, members of A and B Companies of the 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division were stationed on the eastern shore of the Naktong, west of the small town of Yongsan, South Korea. They were holding the “Naktong Bulge,” a prominent peninsula created by turns in the river’s course. That night, the NKPA initiated a large-scale offensive in hopes of driving any United Nations (U.N.) forces out of Korea. Under the cover of fog, the enemy advanced over the Naktong and heavy fighting broke out with Companies A and B taking the brunt of the attack. Despite a spirited defense, the American troops were overrun and forced to fall back by the early morning of September 1. Sergeant Charles Clinton Cowart, who joined the U.S. Army from California, was a member of A Company of the 1st Battalion, 9th Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He was lost at some point during the desperate fighting on August 31. He was never seen as a prisoner of war, and searches of the Naktong area following the end of hostilities were unsuccessful in locating SGT Cowart’s remains. Today, Sergeant Cowart 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, News Pilot (1950)