Piersee, Howard Earl
Army Private 1st class
Howard Earl Piersee from Iowa, Keokuk county.
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Monday, September 4, 1950
Death details: On September 3, 1950, the 8th Cavalry Regiment and the 2nd Engineer Battalion, both elements of the 1st Cavalry Division, were holding a defensive line between Tabu-dong and Taegu at the upper end of the Naktong Perimeter. Company F of the 8th Cavalry, defending Hill 448, was attacked by elements of North Korea’s 13th Infantry Division and forced to retreat to Hill 449, defended by Company G of the 8th Cavalry. The 8th Cavalry Regiment found itself cut off from its supply train and withdrew from the area to keep from being surrounded by the enemy. Upon reaching the village of Tabu-dong, members of Companies D and E of the 8th Cavalry became involved in hut-to-hut fighting before they could retreat. Meanwhile, elements of the 2nd Engineer Battalion, which had been ordered to take and hold Hill 755, were also forced to withdraw. United States forces did not re-take this territory until September 21, 1950. Corporal Howard Earl Piersee, who joined the U.S. Army from Iowa, served with D Company, 2nd Engineer Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division. He was taken as a prisoner of war (POW) by North Korean soldiers during the fighting on Hill 755, and marched north into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Fellow POWs reported that Corporal Piersee died in captivity due to lack of medical care on March 20, 1951, and his remains have not been returned to U.S. control. Corporal Piersee is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
