Corporal Freddie Lee Henson comes home

The Klamath Falls, Oregon Herald and News reports that Corporal Freddie Lee Henson is coming home since he was lost at the Frozen Chosin Reservoir in December 1950.

Hondo told us when his earthly remains were identified earlier this month;

• CPL Freddie L. Henson, A Battery, 57th Field Artillery Battalion, 7th Infantry Division, US Army, was lost in North Korea on 6 December 1950. He was accounted for on 3 April 2017.

From the Herald and News;

More than 1 million Chinese soldiers crossed the border in November 1950 just as it appeared that the U.N. forces led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur had completely routed the Communist forces. The U.N. troops were totally overwhelmed, retreating south and suffering heavy casualties. It was amid this chaos that Henson would meet his fate, losing his life near Hagaru-ri at Twikkae Village, North Korea along the Chosin Reservoir.

Henson was declared missing in action from his unit on Dec. 6, 1950, a small blurb about his disappearance appearing in the Jan. 22, 1951, edition of the Herald and News with no further news ever to follow of his whereabouts. He was 19 years old.

Henson was declared presumed dead on Dec. 31, 1953, though his remains were not recovered. He was survived by his mother, Thelma Henson, who had moved away from Klamath Falls.

[…]

An interment ceremony is planned for Cpl. Henson, but not in Klamath Falls. Lt. Col. Ken Haftorson, the garrison chaplain at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, reported that a full honors ceremony is being planned for Henson’s remains on May 4 in Houston.

Category: We Remember