Fastner, Michael Charles
Army Master sergeant

Michael Charles Fastner from Ramsey County Saint Paul, Minnesota .

Parents: Augusta M. Fastner

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Thursday, November 30, 1950
Death details: On September 21, 2010, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC, now DPAA) identified the remains of MSG Michael Charles Fastner, missing from the Korean War. Master Sergeant Fastner entered the U.S. Army from Minnesota and served in A Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He was captured by the enemy on or around November 30, 1950, as his unit withdrew from positions near Kugang, North Korea. MSG Fastner was interned at POW Camp 5 at Pyoktong, Noth Korea, but died shortly after arriving in February 1951, from exhaustion and illness. He was buried near the camp, but his remains were not returned to the U.S. immediately following the war. In 1993, the North Korean government repatriated the remains of several U.S. service members, and in 2011, analysts were able to successfully identify MSG Fastner from among these remains. Master Sergeant Fastner 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, Minneapolis Star (1950)