Boyer, William Sherman
Army Private 1st Class

William Sherman Boyer, age 23, from Logan County Illinois.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Thursday, July 20, 1950
Death details: On July 20, 1950, the 3rd Battalion of the U.S. 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, was holding a defensive line in South Korea overlooking the Taejon Airport, northeast of the city. When enemy tanks broke through the line near the airport, U.S. troops were ordered to fall back through Taejon. The 3rd Battalion was ordered to lead the convoy out of Taejon, but ran into a series of collapsed structures and roadblocks that broke up the column. U.S. forces were unable to break through these roadblocks, and to avoid capture soldiers moved off-road and began filtering through the countryside in small groups. Corporal William Sherman Boyer entered the U.S. Army from Illinois and served in the Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He went missing in action on or around July 20 during the withdrawal from Taejon, though the exact details surrounding his loss are unknown. His remains were not identified among those returned to U.S. custody following the war, and he is still unaccounted for. Today, Corporal Boyer memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. His name is also inscribed on the Korean War Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC, which was updated in 2022 to include the names of the fallen.

Source: National Archives, Pantagraph (1954), Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency