Eugene Erickson; Korean War POW comes home to NM

The other day, Hondo wrote about Private Eugene Erickson coming home after being Missing in Action as a Prisoner of War since August 1951. His family will inter his remains in Santa Fe National Cemetery on Wednesday afternoon according to the Santa Fe New Mexican.

Pvt. Eugene Erickson enlisted in the Army in September 1950, three months after the Korean War began. He was 20 years old.

Following 14 weeks of basic training at Fort Knox, Ky., Eugene Erickson was sent to Fort Lawton in Seattle for additional training as an infantryman before being shipped overseas in February 1951.

By springtime, he was in the thick of combat in South Korea. In mid-May, he and his Company B mates from the 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment of the 2nd Infantry Division became engaged in a two-day battle with Chinese forces.

The odds weren’t good: 10,000 Americans against 180,000 Chinese.

“They were not going to make it out,” said Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael Ramsey, a Korean War analyst with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

“It was a straight-up Chinese wave of attack. It didn’t matter how much barbed wire we had out there. It didn’t matter how deep the mine fields were. It didn’t matter how much firepower we had. The Chinese were not going to be denied by the weight of human capital they were willing to expend in that battle.

Private Erickson died of starvation according to witnesses, one of whom was a hometown friend, Sergeant Herbert Floyd. who told of his death to his family and reportedly was with Erickson when he died. Eugene’s 87-year-old brother, Clayton, will also receive the nine awards that Eugene earned posthumously.

Category: No Longer Missing