Boyiddle, Silas Wayne
Army Private

Silas Wayne Boyiddle from Oklahoma, Caddo county.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Tuesday, October 31, 1950
Death details: On July 11, 1950, the U.S. Army’s 21st Infantry Regiment, which had arrived in Korea six days earlier, was placed in defensive positions near the town of Chochiwon, South Korea. The regiment was not at full strength and lacked artillery and anti-tank weapons. That day, they were attacked by North Korean forces and were forced to withdraw to avoid being surrounded, as well as to buy time until they could be reinforced and resupplied. Private First Class Silas Wayne Boyiddle, who joined the U.S. Army from Oklahoma, served with L Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was captured by enemy forces on July 11, 1950, as his unit fought a delaying action against the North Korean People’s Army (NKPA)near Chochiwon. He was forced to march north to a prison camp at Manpo, North Korea, where he died of malnutrition in late October. Although he was buried near the camp, his remains were not identified among those returned to U.S. custody after the war. Today, Private First Class Boyiddle is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency