Sterling M Burdick from California, Los Angeles county.
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Friday, June 12, 1953
Death details: During the last two years of the Korean War, the opposing forces were arrayed across the 38th Parallel, with neither side able to make much progress into the other’s territory. Both sides maintained forward observer outposts, and these often proved to be targets of opportunity to the opposing force. On June 12, 1953, Battery A of the 987th Armored Field Artillery Battalion was manning an outpost southeast of Kumsong-ni when Chinese Communist Forces began bombarding the outpost with heavy mortar fire. The outpost collapsed, killing the three soldiers inside. Master Sergeant Sterling Martin Burdick, who joined the U.S. Army from California, served with Battery A, 987th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 40th Infantry Division. On June 12, 1953, he was serving as the forward observer at this outpost and was reported missing in action following the Chinese Communist Forces attack. MSG Burdick was not seen to fall in battle and was never reported to be a prisoner of war. He was not identified among remains returned to U.S. custody following the ceasefire, and he is still unaccounted-for. Today, Master Sergeant Burdick is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Cemetery: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Source: Outpost collapse 12 June 1953,MIA