2/8/2009:
In April of 1951, North Dakota newspapers reported Corporal Edward Lovejoy, of Williston, had been killed in action in Korea, and Sergeant First Class Willas Teske, of Hazen, had been seriously wounded.
A third man, Private First Class Jacob Allmaras, of New Rockford, had also been wounded in action. Allmaras was a rifleman in Company K, 38th Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. Today would have been his 85th birthday.
On May 13th, several months after being wounded and returned to the front lines, he stepped on a land mine and was killed. Allmaras was the 73rd North Dakota man to lose his life in the Korean War, which was in its tenth month at that point. Allmaras's body was not recovered; he is one of more than 8,000 American servicemen listed as missing in action by the end of the three-year war.
By Merry Helm
Sources:
The Bismarck Tribune. 25 Apr 1951:3.
Korean War Project casualty database. Web. 30 Dec 2008.
North Dakota Korean War POW/MIA Database. Web. 30 Dec 2008.