Jason Dale Kriedler, age 21, from Bedford County Queen, Pennsylvania .
Parents: Fred Kriedler
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Friday, December 1, 1950
Death details: By mid-November 1950, U.S. and Allied forces had advanced to within approximately sixty miles of the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and China. On November 25, approximately 300,000 Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) “volunteers” suddenly and fiercely counterattacked after crossing the Yalu. The 2nd Infantry Division, located the farthest north of units at the Chongchon River, could not halt the CCF advance and was ordered to withdraw to defensive positions at Sunchon in the South Pyongan province of North Korea. As the division pulled back from Kunu-ri toward Sunchon, it conducted an intense rearguard action while fighting to break through well-defended roadblocks set up by CCF infiltrators. The withdrawal was not complete until December 1, and the 2nd Infantry Division suffered extremely heavy casualties in the process. Sergeant Jason Dale Kriedler, who joined the U.S. Army from Pennsylvania, served with B Company, 2nd Engineer Combat Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He went missing in action on or about December 1, 1950, during his unit’s withdrawal from Kunu-ri to Sunchon, North Korea. No one reported seeing him fall in battle, and he was not reported as a prisoner of war. He has not been identified among any returned to U.S. custody after the ceasefire. Today, Sergeant Kriedler is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Bedford Gazette (1951)
