Korea's forty-three, enumerated again

1950 – 1953

The check: the Wars section counts forty-three fatal casualties of the Korean War with home-of-record county St. Joseph, taken in full from the Defense Department's casualty file as the National Archives publishes it. This pass enumerated the figure again from the Archives' published Indiana list of the same file — name by name, county by county — and the enumeration returns forty-three, the same forty-three. The count stands confirmed by a second full counting of the record.

The forty-three, as the file names them: Clinton L. Anderson, Richard J. Balog, Eldon R. Bradley, Hugh Maynard Burch, Roland E. Cooper, Dean R. Crabb, Chester Cummings, Dan Ruben Davis, Jack A. Davis, Jack Lee DeWitt, Cleve Driver, Robert Lee Epperson, Kermit McGee Ferrell, Duane L. Foley, Clifton E. Gibson, Robert H. Greene, Ralph S. Gustin, Robert W. Hutchison, Charles E. James, Leonard P. Kowalski, Robert Rex Lawson, John J. Leonhard, Wayne B. Maas, Robert F. C. Maenhout, Mark F. McCreary, Emery L. Modos, Bert J. Nowakowski Jr., Andrew D. Pearish, Percy L. Penrose, James Plump, Chester Radziszewski, Walter E. Ruff, John Earl Rush, Robert J. Sanderson, Walter Louis Skwiercz, Charles E. Smith, Edwin Tabaczynski, James E. Taylor, Joseph H. Veevaete, Mearl Leo Wade, Donald L. West, Arthur I. Williams Jr. and Grover Lois Williams. The two men the Wars entry singles out stand where it puts them: Burch, a staff sergeant of the Air Force whose home of record is New Carlisle, died 12 April 1951 with remains not recovered; and Leonhard, a Marine second lieutenant of Walkerton, died 24 July 1953, three days before the armistice. Nine of the forty-three are carried with remains not recovered: Bradley, Burch, Jack A. Davis, Gibson, Plump, Rush, Charles E. Smith, Tabaczynski and Grover Lois Williams. One limit of the file itself is part of the record: for most of its Army dead the file carries the home-of-record city as "UNKNOWN" with the county present — South Bend is named against the Marine, Navy and Air Force entries and the county against all — so the county is the smallest honest unit of this count, and no city split for Korea is printed, here or in the banked entry.

Sources:

1. National Archives, U.S. Military Fatal Casualties of the Korean War for Home-State-of-Record: Indiana — the Archives' published state list drawn from the Korean War Extract Data File of the Defense Casualty Analysis System (Record Group 330, file as of 29 April 2008), enumerated in full for home-of-record county St. Joseph.