Harold Frederick Diekman, age 21, from Minnesota, Winona county.
Service era: Korea
Military history: 35th Infantry Regiment
Date of death: Monday, November 27, 1950
Death details: On November 27, 1950, B Company of the U.S. Army’s 35th Infantry Regiment, an element of Task Force Dolvin/Wilson, was holding a hastily erected defensive position near the village of Tong-dong, North Korea, when Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) attacked the company’s perimeter from two sides. After heavy fighting, the Chinese successfully infiltrated the American positions, forcing a withdrawal under heavy mortar and artillery fire. The U.S. troops pulled back to another position a mile farther south. Sergeant Harold Frederick Diekman entered the U.S. Army from Michigan and served with B Company of the 1st Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. He was captured on November 27, 1950, during this withdrawal from Tong-dong. As a prisoner of war (POW), he was marched to POW Camp 5 at Pyoktong, on the Yalu River, where he died in the spring or summer of 1951. He was buried near the camp; however, his remains were not identified among those returned to the U.S. following the ceasefire, and he is still unaccounted-for. Today, Sergeant Diekman is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, 35th Infantry Regiment Association, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency