Gustafson, Harold Walter
Army Private

Harold Walter Gustafson, age 27, from Kings County Brooklyn, New York .

Parents: Harry and Signe Gustafson

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Wednesday, January 31, 1951
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 Harold Walter Gustafson entered the U.S. Army from New York and served with A Company, 1st Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was captured by enemy forces near Chonan, South Korea, on July 6, 1950. He was marched north as part of a group of military and civilian internees, known as “Tiger Group,” to the Apex Camps near the Yalu River in North Korea. Multiple repatriated American prisoners of war (POWs) reported witnessing PFC Gustafson’s death on or before January 31, 1951, while at Hanjang-jin, North Korea. His remains were not identified among those returned to U.S. custody after the war, and he is still unaccounted-for. Today, Private First Class Gustafson 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, Brooklyn Eagle (1954)