Waldrop, Alton
Army Seaman

Alton Waldrop, age 21, from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, East Baton Rouge county.

Parents: Birgie S. Chavers

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Sunday, March 2, 1952
Death details: On March 2, 1952, a Landing Craft Personnel, Large (LCPL) departed the USS Chittenden County (LST-561) in the Yellow Sea off the western coast of North Korea. The LCPL was carrying nine U.S. service members and three Allied service members on a reconnaissance mission to investigate a small island near the 38th Parallel. While heading toward the mission area, the surf became too rough and the LCPL turned back, but it never returned to the Chittenden County. There were no reported communications following the landing craft’s withdrawal from the mission area. Three to four days later, clothing and pieces of the LCPL were found and the discovery of this floating debris led the U.S. Navy to determine that the crew was lost in the location of the island of Yonp’yong Do, where enemy guerrillas had been active on March 2. Of the nine U.S. service members on board, the body of one U.S. Army officer washed ashore on a small island off the west coast of the Korean peninsula and was recovered; however, the eleven others on board were not found. Seaman Apprentice Alton Waldrop entered the U.S. Navy from Louisiana and served aboard the Chittenden County. He was a crew member aboard this LCPL when it went missing, and remains unaccounted for. Today, Seaman Apprentice Waldrop is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Based on all information available, DPAA assessed the individual’s case to be in the analytical category of Non-recoverable.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Associated Press (1970)