Grady Harold Flook from California, Los Angeles county.
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Saturday, November 18, 1950
Death details: On July 5, 1950, Task Force Smith, the first U.S. ground element to engage North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) troops, was defending a position north of Osan, South Korea. The Task Force’s goal was to delay enemy forces by blocking their movement down the road south from Suwon to Taejon, which was a major avenue of advance for the NKPA. That morning, the Task Force was engaged by a column of enemy tanks. The anti-tank weapons that the infantrymen employed were ineffective, and a large number of tanks broke through their position. Task Force Smith was forced to withdraw to the south, suffering heavy casualties in the process. Corporal Grady Harold Flook, who joined the U.S. Army from California, served with Headquarters Battery, 52nd Field Artillery Battalion, 24th Infantry Division. His unit was part of Task Force Smith, and was captured by enemy forces on July 5. He was marched to the Apex prison camps in North Korea, and died of exposure, exhaustion, and malnutrition at the camp at Chunggang-jin on November 18. His remains were not identified among those returned to U.S. custody after the war and he is still unaccounted for. Today, Corporal Flook is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
