Hendricks Jr., Charles Howard
Army Private

Charles Howard Hendricks Jr. from Michigan, Ottawa county.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Sunday, July 16, 1950
Death details: On the evening of July 15, 1950, the U.S. Army’s 19th Infantry Regiment held defensive positions along the south bank of the Kum River. As dusk approached, North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) tanks appeared on the opposite shore and began firing on the U.S. positions. Although U.S. troops repulsed the attacks that evening, the next morning the NKPA crossed the river and launched a major attack against the 19th Regiment. As the regiment began withdrawing south to Taejon, the North Koreans pushed deep into their defensive lines and set up a roadblock en route to Taejon. When retreating American convoys could not break through the roadblock, soldiers were forced to leave the road and attempt to make their way in small groups across the countryside. Of the 900 soldiers in the 19th Infantry when the Battle of Kum River started, only 434 made it to friendly lines. Private First Class Charles Howard Hendricks Jr. entered the U.S. Army from Michigan and served with Company G, 2nd Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was captured on July 16, during the Battle of Kum River, as his unit attempted to withdraw to Taejon. He was reportedly a part of a group of prisoners of war (POWs) killed in a train massacre that occurred in a tunnel outside of Sunch’on. His body was subsequently recovered and identified by advancing American troops, and he was buried in a United Nations cemetery in Pyongyang. After communist troops retook Pyongyang, American forces were unable to recover the remains of those buried at this cemetery. Private First Class Hendricks was not identified among the remains returned to U.S. custody after the war. Today, Private First Class Hendricks is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency