On April 25, 1951, Sgt. Edward G. Bunn heard Cpl. Charles L. Gilliland’s automated rifle firing within the darkness close to Tongmang-ni, Korea. Gilliland all the time stored his weapon clear and fine-tuned. Bunn knew when his comrade was the one firing. In a chaotic firefight in opposition to waves of Chinese language troops, the 17-year-old from Yellville, Arkansas, was utilizing his weapon to carry the road.
“If it weren’t for this younger man, Charles Gilliland, I would not be standing right here right now,” Bunn mentioned many years later.
Gilliland by no means made it off that hill. His stays have by no means been recovered. Greater than seven many years later, the youngest Medal of Honor recipient of the Korean Struggle continues to be lacking in motion.
Arkansas and Becoming a member of the Army
Charles Leon Gilliland was born on Might 24, 1933, within the rural Colfax space of Baxter County, Arkansas. He was the eldest boy amongst 9 youngsters. His father, Leon Carl, scraped collectively a dwelling by farming and building. His mom, Evangeline, labored as a nurse’s aide. When Gilliland was an adolescent, the household relocated to Marion County and settled exterior Yellville.
Gilliland spent his childhood roaming the Ozark hills with a rod or rifle, however soldiering consumed his creativeness greater than something. He hoarded newspaper and journal cutouts concerning the armed forces. He walked round Yellville in secondhand army fatigues and a surplus helmet. Buddies tagged him “Gun Smoke” as a result of he talked about changing into a sheriff.
“[Charles] was actually engrossed within the army,” boyhood pal Harold C. Mears of Yellville wrote. “It makes me suppose that he was destined to do what he did in Korea.”
He wished to be robust sufficient to serve. The household had no cash for weights, so Gilliland improvised. He hoisted fieldstones and a blacksmith’s anvil to construct up his energy. He hauled his youthful brothers and sisters round on his again to construct endurance.
“He was into bodybuilding earlier than that was a factor,” his sister Pauline recalled. “He would work out, hitting a punching bag all day lengthy, in climate so sizzling you would not stand it. In school, he would carry youngsters round on his shoulders. He did not do it to indicate out, however to get stronger.”
At 16, Gilliland walked right into a Marine Corps recruiting station and was turned away. The recruiter suggested him to return to highschool. Undeterred, he begged his dad and mom relentlessly for permission to hitch the army. They finally gave in.
On his seventeenth birthday, Might 24, 1950, Gilliland signed his enlistment papers for the U.S. Army at Yellville. Barely a month later, North Korean forces invaded throughout the thirty eighth Parallel, beginning the Korean Struggle.
Service in Korea
Gilliland went by fundamental coaching at Fort Riley, Kansas. He returned to Yellville on depart one final time earlier than his unit deployed abroad that fall. By December 1950, {the teenager} was on the bottom in Korea, assigned to Firm I, seventh Infantry Regiment, third Infantry Division.
The seventh Infantry, generally known as the “Cottonbalers,” had already seen brutal motion in opposition to the enemy. The regiment lined the evacuation at Hungnam in December 1950, serving because the final American unit off Pink Seaside in the course of the Chinese language Second Section Marketing campaign. It then moved into defensive positions north of Seoul as a part of the Eighth Army’s line.
Gilliland noticed fight virtually instantly. Throughout one engagement, he pulled a badly wounded comrade who had misplaced each of his legs off the battlefield and introduced him to security. He earned a Purple Coronary heart for accidents sustained within the combating. He wrote his dad and mom a letter that talked about the rescue however mentioned little else about circumstances on the entrance.
By April 1951, the Chinese language Folks’s Volunteer Army was massing for its spring offensive. Greater than 300,000 Chinese language troops ready to strike throughout the western and central sectors of the entrance. The seventh Infantry would quickly face the complete onslaught of the Chinese language assault.
The Night time of April 24-25, 1951
On the night of April 24, parts of the Chinese language twenty ninth Division attacked throughout the Hantan River and hit all three battalions of the seventh Infantry Regiment. The combating was ferocious. Alongside the regimental entrance, Firm I occupied defensive positions close to Tongmang-ni when an enormous Chinese language power launched a coordinated assault in opposition to their perimeter.
The heaviest push got here straight up a slender path lined by Gilliland’s automated rifle. His assistant gunner was killed virtually instantly. Gilliland stayed on the weapon alone, pouring hearth into the enemy and stalling their advance. When two enemy troopers slipped previous his discipline of fireplace and infiltrated the sector, he jumped from his foxhole, chased them down and killed each together with his pistol.
Throughout that pursuit, Gilliland took a extreme wound to the pinnacle. He refused medical therapy and returned to his place because the Chinese language renewed their assault. He continued holding the road in opposition to waves of Chinese language troops. Bunn was one of many final troopers to see Gilliland throughout this time.
When the corporate obtained orders to fall again to new defensive positions, Gilliland volunteered to remain behind to cowl the withdrawal. His firm pulled again towards a fringe of tanks ready behind the hill. Medics and stretcher bearers struggled to maintain up with the retreating column.
Because the regiment started falling again, Cpl. Clair Goodblood of Firm D held his machine gun place, firing into the seemingly infinite waves of Chinese language troops. He was later discovered lifeless beside his weapon, surrounded by roughly 100 enemy lifeless.
Cpl. John Essebagger of Firm A stood up and single-handedly charged into the oncoming Chinese language assault to cowl his unit’s withdrawal. He was killed within the course of.
Cpl. Hiroshi “Hershey” Miyamura of Firm H killed an estimated 50 Chinese language troopers together with his bayonet and machine gun earlier than he was captured. He would in the end survive the struggle, however solely after spending 28 months as a POW.
When Bunn reached the road of tanks, he was advised Gilliland had been evacuated. Six weeks later, he discovered that Gilliland by no means made it out.
The Medal of Honor
Gilliland was formally listed as lacking in motion. Bunn approached the corporate commander, Capt. Wm. Wichard, to element Gilliland’s heroic actions that night time.
The Army posthumously promoted Gilliland to corporal and, in 1952, advisable him for the Medal of Honor. Goodblood, Essebagger and Miyamura additionally earned the medal for his or her actions that night time. The seventh Infantry Regiment alone had earned 4 Medals of Honor for a single night time of fight.
However Army officers feared that if Chinese language forces had captured Gilliland, publicizing his actions may put him vulnerable to retaliation. Miyamura’s award was additionally categorised to guard him from reprisals.
The announcement was held in secret, and his army recordsdata had been up to date to replicate the award, although his household was stored at the hours of darkness.
After the armistice in 1953, prisoner exchanges had been held alongside the DMZ. Miyamura was one of many 1000’s of POWs to return house, although Gilliland was not amongst them. The Army declared him lifeless in 1954. That December, his household obtained his Medal of Honor throughout a ceremony on the Pentagon.
Gilliland was one month shy of his 18th birthday the night time he earned the Medal of Honor and went lacking. He turned the youngest service member to earn the award in the course of the Korean Struggle.
His different decorations included the Purple Coronary heart, the Good Conduct Medal, the Army of Occupation Medal, the Korean Service Medal with three marketing campaign stars, the Presidential Unit Quotation, the Fight Infantryman Badge and the United Nations Service Medal.
Nonetheless Lacking in Motion
Greater than 7,400 Individuals stay unaccounted for from the Korean Struggle. Gilliland is amongst them. The Protection POW/MIA Accounting Company continues its work by the Korean Struggle Identification Mission, utilizing DNA evaluation, dental data, and historic analysis to establish recovered stays. For a lot of households, the wait has stretched throughout generations.
At Layton Cemetery in Yellville, Gilliland’s gravestone stands beside the graves of his dad and mom, L. Carl and Eva M. Gilliland. The marker bears his identify, birthdate, rank and the Medal of Honor designation.
In Might 1997, on what would have been Gilliland’s sixty fourth birthday, the U.S. Navy christened a 954-foot strategic sealift ship in his honor at Newport News, Virginia. The USNS Gilliland was constructed to move tanks, vehicles and heavy gear into fight zones.
His sister, Dale Shelton sponsored the vessel.
“You could have fought the great combat, and you’ve got given all you needed to give,” Shelton mentioned on the ceremony. “You may relaxation now, Charles.”
In 2016, 65 years after his loss of life, associates, household and veterans gathered at Layton Cemetery for a memorial service with full army honors. His surviving siblings, Billy and Pauline, attended.
“He was very courageous,” Pauline mentioned of her brother. “For a 17-year-old boy, I am unable to even think about. He is my hero.”
Rev. Dr. Thomas Yoder, who officiated the service, spoke about the price of Gilliland’s sacrifice and what it bought.
“We’re right here to have fun a heritage and a positive information that males like Charles Gilliland felt that what we imagine in was essential sufficient to die for,” Yoder mentioned. “How can we do much less?”
At present, Gilliland stays unaccounted for. Nonetheless, he stays the youngest Medal of Honor Recipient of the Korean Struggle and one of many youngest casualties in trendy American army historical past. His sacrifice helped his comrades, together with Bunn, attain security behind a line of tanks earlier than the Chinese language had been finally pushed again.
