Wendling, Ernest Arthur
Army Private

Ernest Arthur Wendling from Illinois, Cook county.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Saturday, November 4, 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 Ernest Arthur Wendling, who joined the U.S. Army from Illinois, served with I Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was captured by enemy forces on July 12, 1950, as his unit engaged the North Korean People’s Army near Chochiwon. He was forced to march north to the Apex prison camps near the Yalu River in North Korea; however, he died en route of exhaustion and exposure on November 4. His companions were not allowed to stop to bury him. After the war, his remains were not identified among those returned to U.S. custody. Today, Private First Class Wendling is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency