Northumberland County Pennsylvania

Warren Elias Heim from Pennsylvania, Northumberland county.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Sunday, July 16, 1950
Death details: On the evening of July 15, 1950, the U.S. Army’s 19th Infantry Regiment held defensive positions along the south bank of the Kum River. As dusk approached, North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) tanks appeared on the opposite shore and began firing on the U.S. positions. Although U.S. troops repulsed the attacks that evening, the next morning the NKPA crossed the river and launched a major attack against the 19th Regiment. As the regiment began withdrawing south to Taejon, the North Koreans pushed deep into their defensive lines and set up a roadblock en route to Taejon. When retreating American convoys could not break through the roadblock, soldiers were forced to leave the road and attempt to make their way in small groups across the countryside. Of the 900 soldiers in the 19th Infantry when the Battle of Kum River started, only 434 made it to friendly lines. Private First Class Warren Elias Heim entered the U.S. Army from Pennsylvania and served with Company D, 1st Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. On July 16, he was captured during one of the many rear-guard actions in the Battle of Kum River. He was forced on the Tiger March to the Apex prison camps on the south bank of the Yalu River. PFC Heim was shot by the guards on November 8, during the last stages of this march somewhere between the villages of An-dong and Kaeyambol, and was buried at a site referred to as Chungang. His remains have not been identified among those returned to U.S, custody.Today, Private First Class Heim is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency