Another Missing in Korea

Pvt. Calvin Van Winkle of Blair Lost in Action Last Saturday

Lt. Eugene Hansen Also on Missing List

The War Department this week announced that Pvt. Calvin Arthur Van Winkle, 17, of Blair, has been reported missing in action in Korea since Saturday.

It was the second missing-in-action report involving Washington Countians. Lt. Eugene R. Hansen, former Herman boy whose parents, Mr. and Mrs. Harold Hansen, Sr., now live in Fremont, has been missing some two weeks in Korea.

Pvt. Van Winkle is the son of Clifford Van Winkle of Fort Calhoun and Mrs. Ralph Gourley of Tacoma, Wash. His grandmother is Mrs. Solomon Hineline of DeSoto.

Pvt. Van Winkle, born Aug. 23, 1932, lived in Washington state most of his life, but in 1948 moved to Blair and Omaha to be with relatives. He enlisted at Omaha less than a year ago and was first sent to Fort Riley, Kan., then to Japan.

American battle Monuments Commission The Korean War Honor Roll

(Photo)

Ft. Calhoun, Nebraska Born 1932

Private First Class, U.S. Army

Service Number 17269053

Died while Prisoner of War

Died February 16, 1951 in Korea

Private First Class Van Winkle was a member of the 2nd Platoon, Company B, 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was taken Prisoner of War while fighting the enemy in South Korea on July 5, 1950, forced to march to North Korea on the “Tiger Death March”, and died while a prisoner at Hanjang-ni, North Korea on February 16, 1951. His remains were not recovered. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial. Private First Class Van Winkle was awarded the Purple Heart, the Combat Infantryman’s Bade, the Prisoner of War Medal, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations service Medal, the National defense Service Medal, the Korean Presidential Unit Citation and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal.

Enterprise 27 July 1950

No Word of Van Winkle

No word has come yet of Pvt. Calvin Van Winkle, who was announced missing in action by the War Department last week.

Pvt. Van Winkle is the son of Clifford Van Winkle of Ft. Calhoun and Mrs. Ralph Gourley, of Tacoma, Washington. Mrs. Gourley is the former Berniece Hurst also of theft. Calhoun vicinity.

Pvt. Van Winkle was a resident of Washington state until 1948, when he came to Blair and Omaha to be with relatives. He enlisted in Omaha August 24, 1949 and was sent to Ft. Riley, Kansas for training. He spent his furlough in Tacoma, Washington with his mother and sailed January 16th for Kamanato, Japan, where he was stationed until the outbreak of the Korean war.

Pvt. Van Winkle is a grandson of Mrs. Solomon Hineline of the DeSoto vicinity.

Pilot Tribune 20 Feb 2007

Remains of Ft. Calhoun soldier still missing

(Flag for POW MIA)

Like thousands of others; remains of fallen soldier never returned home

(Article by Jim Brazda Reporter)

More than 50 years have passed since the Korean War came to a close; however, thousands of U.S. servicemen have still to make the trip home. At the end of the war, there were 8,100 men classified as unaccounted for.

Finding these soldiers and bringing them home is the mission of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command. The JPAC is a division of the Department of Defense, and sends out forensic teams to follow leads on American soldiers who were killed in action, but never brought home.

By running tests at its Central Identification Laboratory, the largest forensic anthropology lab in the world, JPAC is able to identify soldiers’ remains half a century after they died.

According to JPAC’s Website, the process of identifying remains can take several years. On average, the command identifies six remains every month.

But the military can only get so far in identifying many of the remains it recovers. A DNA sample from a family member is often the critical piece of information that can finally give closure to the family.

Ray Sestak is a researcher for a small group of volunteer veterans who unofficially assist the military in completing and updating family contact information for these soldiers. They help families get in contact information for these soldiers. They help families get in contact with the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office.

Between 1990 and 1994only 200 sets of remains have been returned to the United States from North Korea, and very few of those have been identified, Sestak said in an email.

“The government agencies handling the recovery efforts have found that in addition to the difficulties of the actual recovery, the records for most of these men are long out of date and contain no current family contact or next of kin information,” Sestak said.

One such case is Prvt. First Class Calvin A. Van Winkle, of Fort Calhoun. Van Winkle was taken prisoner by North Korean forces in July 5, 1950. He was forced to make a 108-mile trek through mountainous terrain and sub-zero temperatures that would later be termed the “Tiger Death March”. He was taken to a prisoner camp in Hanjang-ni, where he died as a prisoner of war 56 years ago on Feb. 16,1951.

Van Winkle’s name is listed on a Web site maintained by Sestak’s small group of volunteers, www.koreanwarmias.com. After receiving an e-mail from one of the volunteers looking for information him and other Nebraska soldiers, the Enterprise was able to locate Van Winkle’s half-sister, Jean Mallory, who lives in Fort Calhoun.

Van Winkle was raised in Washington state, and moved to Omaha to live with his father, Clifford Van Winkle, shortly before joining the Army before he turned 19, Mallory said. He had to peek through his fingers to pass the vision test to be accepted because he had one bad eye, she said.

The plan was for Van Winkle to return home and help his father with the family farm in Fort Calhoun where the family moved after he joined the service. That wasn’t meant to be.

Mallory said she still remembers the day when she found out her brother was missing in action.

“I was sitting there with Dad; he was sick,” Mallory said. “I was holding his hand, watching the names roll up on the TV. (Calvin’s) never came up. A lot of people don’t know what that’s like.”

After the war, Mallory said she had heard from some of Van Winkle’s friends that he had been starved and left to face the elements on his own.

According to a first-hand account posted on the Internet by Wilbert “Shorty” Estabrook, founder of Tiger Survivors, hundreds of U.S. soldiers and other civilians died in captivity of the North Koreans.

During the march, which lasted from Oct. 31, 1950 to Nov. 17, 1950, 89 people were left behind or shot by a North Korean major who was given the nickname “The Tiger”, because of his brutality and lust for killing, Estabrook wrote. More than 220 died as result of malnutrition and injuries at the prison camp at Hanjang-ni, he wrote.

“Hopefully, someday Calvin and all the other heroes from all the forgotten wars will be brought home”, Sestak said. “In the meantime, the search continues for the families of thousands of men still unaccounted for”.

Although Van Winkle may not yet be on his way home, it is important to remember him and the thousands of other soldiers who have yet to return from foreign wars. Until they all return, the JPAC and groups such as the Korean War MIAs will continue to work diligently behind the scenes to bring closure to families who may still not know the final resting place of their loved ones who fought for freedom on foreign shores.

The work of volunteers like these proves these soldiers are truly, “gone, but not forgotten”.

Listed on the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office; Personnel Missing – Korea (PMKOR) Report for Nebraska

Van Winkle Calvin A; USA; RA17269053; E2; Pvt; B Co 1/21 Regt 24D

Date of Incident 7/15/50; Date of Death 2/28/51; Status POW; Home of Record Douglas, NE

~~~ Obituary courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Public Library at Blair, Nebraska.~~~

Find a Grave #'s 129249211 and 118625569