Zoellick, William M.
Army Private 1st Class

William M. Zoellick from Illinois, Cook county.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Thursday, November 30, 1950
Death details: On February 22, 2022, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Corporal William Martin Zoellick, missing from the Korean War. Corporal Zoellick entered the U.S. Army from Illinois and was a member of Company B, 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. CPL Zoellick was captured by Chinese People’s Volunteer Force (CPVF) on November 30, 1950, after his unit encountered a CPVF roadblock near Kunu-ri, North Korea. A report provided to the United Nations by the CPVF stated that CPL Zoellick died at POW Camp 1 at Ch’angsong, North Korea, on February 27, 1951. CPL Zoellick was not identified from among remains returned to U.S. custody after the war. In 2018, the DPAA began its phased disinterment and reexamination of 652 Korean War unknown remains that were buried at the National Memorial Cemetery in Honolulu, Hawaii. One set of these unknown remains that had been recovered from the POW Camp 5 in Pyoktong, North Korea, were tentatively associated with ZPL Zoellick. While this location was inconsistent with CPL Zoellick’s reported place of death, DPAA historians surmised that the reported location may have been made in error, as Camp 1 was not yet operational until after CPL Zoellick’s date of death, February 27, 1951. Laboratory analysis and circumstantial evidence allowed DPAA scientists to identify the remains as those of CPL Zoellick.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency