Wagner, Rex Eugene
Army Private 1st class

Rex Eugene Wagner, age 17, from Fostoria, Ohio, Hancock county.

Parents: Viola Wagner

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Thursday, November 2, 1950
Death details: On March 22, 2007, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC, now DPAA) identified the remains of Corporal Rex Eugene Wagner, missing from the Korean War. Corporal Wagner entered the U.S. Army from Ohio and served with Company L, 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. On November 2, 1950, members of Company L were occupying a defensive position near Unsan, North Korea, north of a bend in the Kuryong River known as the “Camel’s Head Bend.” That day, elements of the Chinese Communist Forces struck the 1st Cavalry Division’s lines, collapsing the perimeter and forcing a withdrawal. CPL Wagner did not survive this combat, though the exact details surrounding his loss are unknown. His body was not recovered at that time by U.S. forces. In 2002, a U.S. team excavated a grave south of Unsan where they recovered human remains associated with American forces lost near “Camel’s Head Bend,” and U.S. analysts identified CPL Wagner from these remains.

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