Americus Georgia

Luther H. Story, age 19, from Sumter County Americus, Georgia .

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Friday, September 1, 1950
Death details: On April 6, 2023, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Corporal Luther Herschel Story, missing from the Korean War. Corporal Luther Herschel Story entered the U.S. Army from Georgia and served in A Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. On August 31, 1950, this unit held a defensive position on the Naktong River, South Korea. Numerically superior enemy forces assaulted the company’s position, but CPL Story displayed conspicuous bravery in repelling several enemy attacks. By the next day, the company was forced to withdraw. Wounded, CPL Story chose to remain behind and cover the withdrawal of his comrades. He was last seen continuing to fire on the enemy with every weapon available to him. He was never reported as a prisoner of war and was eventually declared killed in action. For his actions on September 1, 1950, CPL Story was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. In October 1950, U.S. personnel recovered remains in the area where CPL Story fell, but they could not be identified with the forensic techniques available at the time and were buried as an Unknown at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii. In June 2021, as part of an ongoing effort to disinter and identify Korean War Unknowns, these remains were moved to a DPAA laboratory for further study. The scientific analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available established the remains as those of CPL Story. Corporal Story is 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, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Atlanta Journal (1951)