Gedney, Robert Earl
Army Private 1st class

Robert Earl Gedney, age 19, from Cuyahoga County Cleveland, Ohio .

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Saturday, December 9, 1950
Death details: Members of the U.S. 34th Infantry Regiment were among the first U.S. ground troops to arrive in South Korea following the North Korean Peoples Army (NKPA) invasion on June 25, 1950. The 34th, which had been on garrison duty in Japan, was undermanned and under-equipped and had little field experience. It’s mission was to delay the NKPA’s surge to the south as long as possible so that reinforcements could arrive. On July 6 the NKPA attacked the 1st and 3rd Battalions of the 34th Infantry north of the town of Chonan, South Korea. The U.S. troops withdrew slowly back to Chonan, and established defensive lines there. Private First Class Robert Earl Gedney entered the U.S. Army from Ohio and served with A Company, 1st Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. On July 6, 1950, he was captured by enemy forces near Chonan, South Korea. Repatriated American prisoners of war (POW) later reported that PFC Gedney died at the Hangjang-ni Prison Camp, North Korea, on December 9. Private First Class Gedney’s remains were not identified among those returned to U.S. custody after the war, and he is still unaccounted-for. Today, Private First Class Gedney 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, UP (1953)