Williams, Charles Othern
Army Private 1st class

Charles Othern Williams, age 19, from Pittsburg County Eufaula, Oklahoma .

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Thursday, February 22, 1951
Death details: By mid-November 1950, U.S. and Allied forces had advanced to within approximately sixty miles of the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and China. On November 25, approximately 300,000 Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) “volunteers” suddenly and fiercely counterattacked after crossing the Yalu. The 2nd Infantry Division, located the farthest north of units at the Chongchon River, could not halt the CCF advance and was ordered to withdraw to defensive positions at Sunchon in the South Pyongan province of North Korea. As the division pulled back from Kunu-ri toward Sunchon, it conducted an intense rearguard action while fighting to break through well-defended roadblocks set up by CCF infiltrators. The withdrawal was not complete until December 1, and the 2nd Infantry Division suffered extremely heavy casualties in the process. Corporal Charles Othern Williams, who joined the U.S. Army from Oklahoma, served with D Company, 2nd Engineer Combat Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was captured by enemy forces on December 1, 1950, as his unit was withdrawing from Kunu-ri to Sunchon. He and a large group of other prisoners were marched to Camp 5, Pyoktong, North Korea, where soon after his arrival, he died of malnutrition on February 22, 1951. He was buried at Camp 5, however, his remains have not been identified among any returned to U.S. custody after the war. Corporal Williams is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, M’Alester News Capital (1951)