Camden County Georgia

Lawrence A. Harnage, age 20, from Bay City, Georgia, Camden county.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Saturday, July 29, 1950
Death details: On July 30, 1950, the 24th Infantry Division’s undermanned and ill-equipped 19th Infantry Regiment, which had been rushed to Korea from garrison duty in Japan, established defensive lines around the South Korean city of Chinju. The soldiers of the 19th Infantry faced the North Korean People’s Army (NKPA), which was moving inexorably south down the Korean peninsula. The unit lacked heavy artillery and anti-tank weaponry, and the Americans were ultimately unable to stop the NKPA and were forced to withdraw further south to prevent being surrounded. Corporal Lawrence A. Harnage, who joined the U.S. Army from Georgia, served with H Company, 2nd Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action on July 29 after his unit, manning a roadblock on the Chinju-Hadong road, was attacked by North Korean troops. Later, his name was discovered written on a blackboard in a school house in Seoul that was used to house prisoners of war; however, he was never officially reported to be a prisoner, and may have only been held short-term before he died in captivity. His remains could not be located or identified following the war, and he is still unaccounted for. Today, Corporal Harnage is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Associated Press (1953)