Ellis County Kansas

Richard Celestine Wasinger, age 18, from Victoria, Kansas, Ellis county.

Parents: Joe J. Wasinger

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Thursday, November 2, 1950
Death details: On October 5, 2005, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC, now DPAA) identified the remains of Corporal Richard Celestine Wasinger, missing from the Korean War. Corporal Wasinger entered the U.S. Army from Kansas and served with Company A, 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. On November 2, 1950, members of Company A were occupying a defensive position near Unsan, North Korea, north of a bend in the Kuryong River known as the “Camel’s Head Bend.” That day, elements of the Chinese Communist Forces struck the 1st Cavalry Division’s lines, collapsing the perimeter and forcing a withdrawal. CPL Wasinger was taken as a prisoner of war (POW) during this combat, though the exact details surrounding his capture and internment are unknown. In early 1954, a repatriated American POW reported that CPL Wasinger was killed by an air attack on an unknown date while still in enemy captivity. His body was not returned to U.S. forces at the time of his loss. In 2001, a joint U.S./North Korean team excavated a common grave in Unsan and recovered human remains and artifacts associated with CPL Wasinger’s loss; U.S. analysts later identified CPL Wasinger from these remains.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Associated Press (1950)