William Winton Strickland, age 21, from Colleton County South Carolina.
Spouse: Jessie Lee Strickland
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Monday, May 7, 1951
Death details: On February 5, 1951, Allied forces in Korea launched an offensive against North Korean and Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) north of Wonju. Republic of Korea units and the 38th Infantry Regiment and supporting artillery units, including the 15th and 503rd Field Artillery Battalions, and the 82nd Antiaircraft Artillery and Automatic Weapons Battalion, initially met light resistance on their drive to the north. On February 11, the CCF launched an aggressive counteroffensive that caused the Allies to withdraw back southward. However, the CCF had established a series of roadblocks on the road to the south, forcing the Allies to fight their way back to friendly lines. Corporal Williams Winton Strickland entered the U.S. Army from South Carolina and was a member of B Company, 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He was captured on February 12, 1951, as his unit was positioned along the Hongchon-Wonju highway, north of Changbong-ni, South Korea. After his capture, he was marched toward holding camps along the Yalu River in North Korea. A repatriated American POW reported that CPL Strickland died of malnutrition on May 7, 1951 while detained aboard a train traveling to the Suan Bean POW Camp. His body was placed along the tracks west of Sunchon. U.S. investigators have not been able to access this location to search for his remains, and he has not been associated with any remains returned to U.S. custody after the war. Today, Corporal Strickland 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, Press and Standard (1954)
