William Martin Zoellick was a United States Army soldier who was taken as a prisoner of war on November 30, 1950 during the Korean War. His remains were recovered during Operation GLORY and identified on February 22, 2022.
Biography[]
Between November 25 and December 2, 1950, the 2nd Infantry Division, along with other United Nations Command units, participated in the Battle of the Ch'ongch'on River. During the battle, the Chinese People's Volunteer Army launched a series of surprise attacks along the Ch'ongch'on River Valley, which resulted in heavy losses for the UNC and forced all UN forces to retreat from North Korea to the 38th Parallel. On November 30, 1950, Company B encountered a Chinese People's Volunteer Army roadblock near Kunu-ri, North Korea. During the battle, William was captured by the PVA and was reported missing in action. The United Nations suffered a total of at least 11,000 casualties, and the Chinese and North Koreans had 30,000 casualties in total.
William, along with other UNC POWs, was forced to trek to several POW camps; he ended up in POW Camp 1. Conditions at the camps were harsh, with the prisoners receiving little food or water, as well as heavy communist indoctrination. Additionally, diseases such as malaria and beriberi ran rampant, and the guards executed anyone that could not keep up with the marches to the camps. On February 27, 1951, William died at the camp from unspecified causes and was buried somewhere outside of the camp.
Aftermath[]
In August 1953, a Chinese report indicated to the UNC that William died at POW Camp 1. He was memorialized at the National Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. and the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was posthumously awarded the following: 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.
After the end of the Korean War on July 27, 1953, Operation GLORY took place. Between September 1 and October 30, 1954, North Korea turned over 4,200 remains, nearly 3,000 of which were determined to be American. William's remains were among them but could not be identified as his. Since they could not be identified, they were labelled as "X-14319." "X-14319" and 847 other unidentified remains would be buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, Hawaii on February 16, 1956.
Identification[]
In September 2019, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency exhumed "X-14319" as part of Phase 2 of the Korean War Identification Project. These remains were sent for analysis to the DPAA Laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii for analysis. DPAA and Armed Forces Medical Examiner System scientists used dental and anthropological analysis, mtDNA analysis, and circumstantial evidence to identify the remains.
Thanks to these methods, "X-16833" was identified as William Martin Zoellick on February 22, 2022. His identification was announced in late February 2022 and once again on October 20, 2022. He will be buried on November 10, 2022, in Belvidere, Illinois.