Yuba City California

Howard Leander Onstott, age 31, from Sutter County Yuba City, California .

Parents: Alvin L. Onstott

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Tuesday, July 25, 1950
Death details: By July 1950, the North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) had taken control of Taejon, and the U.S. Eighth Army’s 25th Infantry Division and 1st Cavalry Division were sent into action. The 1st Cavalry Division deployed at Pohang between July 18-21 and immediately advanced west on the Taegu-Taejon road to establish blocking positions at Yongdong and defend the city. The ensuing three-day Battle of Yongdong was intense, and the 1st Cavalry Division was ultimately forced to withdraw on July 25 after the 5th Cavalry Regiment alone had lost 275 men. The battle inflicted heavy casualties on the NKPA and delayed its advance enough to allow United Nations (UN) forces to establish the Pusan Perimeter, but the NKPA still managed to capture many American prisoners of war (POWs). Prisoners were marched north to Seoul before being transferred to camps in Pyongyang. Many POWs were eventually rescued, though many others died from exhaustion and mistreatment. Poor record keeping by the NKPA and strained diplomatic tensions following the war have complicated the identification and recovery of those who went missing during the Battle of Yongdong, and many are still unaccounted for. Sergeant Howard Leander Onstott entered the U.S. Army from California and served in A Company of the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. On the morning of July 25, 1950, SGT Onstott was involved in a withdrawal from areas south of Yongdong that had been cut off from American positions in the city. A Company did manage to reunite with the rest of the 5th Cavalry Regiment; however, SGT Onstott went missing at some point during the action. After the war, a surviving POW reported that he had seen SGT Onstott in enemy captivity north of Pyongyang in late October 1950, though he also noted that SGT Onstott was in very bad shape and unable to walk. North Korean guards killed most of the POWs who were in SGT Onstott’s group, and though two mass graves were located, SGT Onstott’s remains could not be identified among those disinterred from the graves following the war. Today, Sergeant Onstott 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, DC, which was updated in 2022 to include the names of the fallen.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Sacramento Union (1954)