Johnson County Indiana

Eugene Harold Herkless, age 46, from Carthage, Indiana, Johnson county.

Service era: Korea
Military history: 35th Infantry Regiment

Date of death: Saturday, July 22, 1950
Death details: On July 22, 1950, the 2nd Battalion of the U.S. Army’s 35th Infantry Regiment was holding defensive positions along the south bank of the rain-swollen Yong stream, south of Mun’gyong, South Korea. The battalion’s Company F was sent across the stream to reinforce a Republic of Korea (ROK) battalion on the north bank, but the ROK-U.S. position was immediately attacked by North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) forces, separating them from the rest of the 2nd Battalion and flanking Company F on both sides. Company F fell back to the stream’s edge under enemy fire, but the current was too powerful for them to cross and the enemy had seized the nearby bridge. U.S. combat engineers on the south bank attempted to launch rafts for the stranded men but were also pinned down by the NKPA until additional American tanks and infantry arrived to give them covering fire. This enabled the engineers to deploy their rafts and evacuate the men of Company F from the north bank. However, several soldiers were lost to enemy fire or while attempting to cross the swollen stream before the rafts could be launched. Master Sergeant Eugene Harold Herkless, who entered the U.S. Army from Kentucky, served with H Company, 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. He went missing eight miles northwest of Hamchang, South Korea, when elements of H Company were supporting Company F during this action on July 22, 1950. He was not associated with any remains later recovered from the area, and he is still unaccounted-for. Today, Master Sergeant Herkless is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, 35th Infantry Regiment Association, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency