Binge, Charles F.
Army Private 1st class

Charles F. Binge from Indiana, Newton county.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Wednesday, July 15, 1953
Death details:  Early on the morning of July 15, 1953, Company K of the U.S. Army’s 180th Infantry Regiment was holding defensive positions along an outpost line in central Korea when they came under attack by a reinforced enemy company with mortar and artillery support. Communications with other friendly positions were cut, and Company K defended its outpost for more than five hours with savage hand-to-hand fighting in the forward trenches. Soon, the enemy was reinforced to battalion strength and overran Company K’s position, and they were forced to pull back. However, Company K soon regrouped and counterattacked to recapture the lost ground, again engaging in hand-to-hand combat under bombardment by enemy artillery. Over several more hours of bitter fighting, Company K succeeded in pushing the much larger enemy force off their positions and retaking the outpost, though not without suffering a number of casualties.

Corporal Charles Franklin Binge, who joined the U.S. Army from Indiana, served with Company K, 3rd Battalion, 180th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division. He went missing in action on July 15 during his unit’s 11-hour defense of the outpost west of Heartbreak Ridge. He was not seen to fall in battle, and he was not reported to be a prisoner of war. Shortly after the battle, the area where he disappeared was heavily mined, and after the ceasefire that area became part of the Demilitarized Zone, precluding searches for his remains. Today, Corporal Binge is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency