SAVANNAH (Ga.) — Soldiers from the 9th Infantry regiment made a desperate escape as North Korean troops closed around them. Pfc. Luther Herschel Story, an 18-year old Army Pfc., feared that his injuries would slow his company down, so he stayed back to cover their retreat.
Story’s actions during the Korean War, on September 1, 1950, ensured he would be remembered. The Medal of Honor is the highest military award in the United States. It’s displayed at the National Infantry Museum near Americus.
Story never returned to life, and the location of his grave has long been a mystery.
Judy Wade, Story’s niece and the closest living relative, said: “We always thought he wouldn’t be found.”
In April, the U.S. Military revealed that lab tests had found a match between DNA from Wade and her mother’s bones recovered in Korea in 1950. Wade was told over the phone that Story’s remains were those of the soldier. He was returning home after nearly 73-years.
An Andersonville National Cemetery burial with military honours is scheduled for Monday. A police escort flashing lights led Story’s casket in Americus, Georgia on Wednesday.
The late Army Cpl. Luther Herschel Story.
US Army / via AP
Wade, who was conceived four years after the disappearance of her uncle overseas, said: “I no longer have to worry about it.” “I’m glad he is home.”
Former President Jimmy Carter was among those who celebrated Story’s return. Wade says that when Story was a boy, his family worked and lived in Plains, on land that Carter’s father James Earl Carter Sr. owned.
Jimmy Carter has been receiving hospice care in his Plains home since February. Jill Stuckey is the superintendent of the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park. She said that she told Carter about Story as soon as she learned it.
Stuckey stated, “Oh there was a huge smile on his face.” He was thrilled to hear that a hero would be coming home.
Story was born in Sumter County about 150 miles south-southwest of Atlanta, where his father worked as a sharecropper. Story, a boy with a great sense of humor who also liked baseball, worked in the cotton fields alongside his parents and siblings as a child. It was hard work and didn’t pay well.
Wade’s mother, Gwendolyn Story, who was Luther Story’s older sister, said that her mom talked about eating sweet potato three times per day. She used to tell me how her fingers would bleed at night from picking the cotton out of bolls. Everyone in the family was required to work for it to exist.”
Story’s parents eventually found better jobs in Americus, which is the largest city of the county. In the years after World War II, he enrolled in school but quickly set his sights on joining up with the military.
His mother signed the papers in 1948 that allowed Story to join the Army. She gave his date of birth as July 20, 1930. Wade, however, said that she obtained a copy her uncle’s original birth certificate which showed he was actually born in 1932. This would have meant he had been 16 years old when he enlisted.
Story dropped out of school in his sophomore year. Around the start of the Korean War, he was deployed to Korea in the summer of 50 with Company A of 1st Battalion 9th Infantry Regiment.
Story’s unit was attacked by three divisions North Korean troops on Sept. 1, 1950 near the village Agok, which is located along the Naktong River. The North Koreans were attempting to surround and stop the Americans from escaping.
According to the Medal of Honor citation, Story grabbed a machine gun, fired at enemy soldiers who were crossing the river and killed or wounded about 100. Story, whose company commander had ordered them to retreat, rushed onto a road as his commander gave the order. He hurled grenades at a truck approaching with North Korean soldiers and ammunition. He continued to fight despite being injured.
The award citation for Story said, “Realizing his wounds could hinder his comrades he refused retirement to the next post but remained to cover company’s withdraw.” When last seen, he was using every weapon he had to fight off another hostile attack.
Story was assumed to be dead. According to the birth certificate Wade received, Story would have been 18 at the time.
Story’s father was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1951 at a Pentagon Ceremony. Story was posthumously promoted from corporal to sergeant.
The U.S. Military recovered a body about a month after Story was reported missing in Korea. It was in the same area that he had been fighting. The remains of the unidentified service member were interred with those of other unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Hawaii.
According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPMAA), more than 7,500 Americans from the Korean War are still missing or whose remains haven’t been identified. This is roughly 20% of nearly 37,000 U.S. military personnel who died during the war.
In 2021, the remains of the unknown soldier found near Agok were disinterred as part of an effort to identify the identities of hundreds of Americans who perished in the war. Scientists compared the DNA of the bones to samples provided by Wade’s mother and herself before her death in 2017. The match was successful.
The announcement was made by President Joe Biden in Washington on April 26, alongside South Korean President YoonSuk Yeol.
Biden said, “We can now return him to his family and to his rest.”
