Korean War veteran William Herrington of Alliance, MIA for 72 years, identified; military burial set

FORT KNOX, Ky. — The remains of a Korean War veteran from Northeast Ohio, identified more than seven decades after he was declared missing in action, are now due to be buried on American soil, with full military honors.

U.S. Army Cpl. William J. Herrington , of Alliance, 19, was part of the 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action on Dec. 2, 1950, during a series of “major battles” with the Chinese army in North Korea , according to a Wednesday news release from the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency , which identified the man’s remains two years ago.

Chinese Communist Forces had attacked U.S. and United Nations troops in the Chosin Reservoir, according to the release. The fighting lasted 17 days and is now known as the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir.

Herrington’s regiment was defending the eastern side of the reservoir but was outnumbered and “overwhelmed,” reads the release. Facing roadblocks and under “constant enemy fire,” they were forced to withdraw on Dec. 1. Many men were captured or lost over the next two days, including Herrington, who did not regroup with his unit, according to the agency.

Three years later — months after an armistice stopped the fighting, but not the war, which has never formally ended — Army officials presumed Herrington to be dead. Three years after that, they determined his remains could not be recovered.

But in 2018, following a summit between Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un and former president Donald Trump , the North Korean government turned over 55 boxes it claimed contained the remains of American servicemembers killed during the war, according to a news release . The agency used dental, anthropological and DNA analysis to identify his remains in August 2022.

More than 7,600 U.S. veterans who served in the war went MIA or were captured and later declared dead, according to U.S. casualty records .

Herrington’s remains are due to be interred this month at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia , according to the release. His name on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu will soon feature a rosette, showing he has been accounted for. His name is also inscribed on the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

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