Foster Ohio

Edwin Curtis Martin from Warren County Foster, Ohio .

Parents: Mrs. Bernice Foster

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Thursday, August 31, 1950
Death details: On April 29, 2025, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified the remains of U.S. Army Cpl. Edwin C. Martin, missing from the Korean War. Martin entered the U.S. Army from Ohio and served in A Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. In late August 1950, U.S. forces were stationed along the Pusan Perimeter, a defensive formation around the town of Pusan with the outer edge along the east bank of the Naktong River. On the night of Aug. 31, a large unit from the North Korean People’s Army crossed the Naktong and attacked the 1st Battalion’s position near Yongsan. Heavy fighting broke out, forcing American units to retreat to a nearby ridge. Martin’s company was overrun, and he was lost during this action, though the exact circumstances of his loss are unknown. He was never reported as a prisoner of war, and subsequent searches failed to recover his remains. On Oct. 25, 1950, a set of remains was recovered near the village of Sangde Po, South Korea, and interred in the United Nations Military Cemetery in Miryang. They could not be identified with the technology available at the time and were eventually transported to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. In June 2021, as part of Phase Three of the Korean War Disinterment Plan, DPAA disinterred this set of remains and sent it to the DPAA laboratory for analysis. Using modern forensic techniques, Martin was positively identified. He 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, D.C., which was updated in 2022 to include the names of the fallen.

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