Corporal Wasinger was a light weapons infantryman of Company A, 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division of the U.S. Army. He was taken Prisoner of War while fighting the communist enemy near Unsan, North Korea on November 2, 1950 and was killed by a guard on November 7, 1950. Service/Serial #17230770.

Listed on the Korean War Memorial in Dayton, Ohio, Cenotaph Kansas Panel 5.

His name is memorialized on Court 8 of the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

His name with photo is also on his grandparents' headstone at Saint Fidelis Cemetery, Victoria, Ellis County, Kansas.

His remains were recovered on October 5, 2001, and identified February 7, 2006.

Awarded:
Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster
Prisoner of War Medal
National Defense Service Medal
Korean Service Medal
Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation
United Nations Service Medal
Republic of Korea War Service Medal
Combat Infantryman Badge

Richard C. Wasinger Bio & family tree

(research credit to GraveHunter #47976571)

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Hays Daily News (KS) - February 16, 2006
Author/Byline: PHYLLIS J. ZORN

The family of a Victoria soldier killed during the early days of the Korean War has been waiting a long time for closure. After more than 50 years, they are finally getting it.

Answers to the family's many questions about what happened to Cpl. Richard Wasinger came last week when they met for five hours with military officials. Paul Bethke, mortuary affairs specialist for the U.S. Army Resources Command, and Kansas Army National Guard officers assigned as liaisons to Wasinger's family detailed what became of Wasinger , how his remains were discovered and how positive identification was made.

Arrangements are now being made for the remains of the 18-year-old soldier to be laid to rest with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery in the spring. For 51 years, Wasinger's remains rested in a shallow, unmarked grave near Unsan, Korea.

In 1954, military officials notified the family that Wasinger , listed as missing in action for four years, had been dead since Nov. 7, 1950. Wasinger 's family gathered at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Victoria to mourn his death.

Theresa Gottschalk, now 60, still remembers her oldest brother's framed photo resting atop a flag at the memorial. "The part I remember is the service," said Wasinger 's brother, Ron Stecklein, now 57. He was 6 at the time. "I remember Mom kneeling there and crying."

Wasinger's other siblings, Rose Koerner, 62, Charlene Weigel, 51, Delores Dreher, 68, Elmer Stecklein, 71, and Leroy Stecklein, 55, can now close the book on the questions that lingered so many years.

Ron Stecklein remembers many different stories the family heard - and supposed - about his brother's death. "They had all kinds of stories. No one really knew, I guess," Ron Stecklein said.

In St. Fidelis Cemetery at Victoria, Wasinger 's photo is mounted on his grandparent's headstone. Until now, his photo was all the family had to remember him.

The reason for the four-year delay between Wasinger 's death and his family being told he had died is that it wasn't until after the war's end that Cpl. Charles Lex, taken prisoner along with Wasinger , was released from a Korean prisoner of war camp. Lex told Army officials after his release that he'd seen Wasinger shot by a United Nations airplane as the column of prisoners was marched northward along a road outside Unsan, Korea, on Nov. 7, 1950.

"The crew couldn't recognize whether they were Chinese, Korean or what, so they just opened fire," Ron Stecklein said of the airplane crew. But Lex didn't know where Wasinger was buried.

Wasinger's burial place was found in 2001 when a native who had been a boy when Wasinger was killed showed officials searching for the bodies of American soldiers where two of them had been buried. "Rich and another soldier were buried by the side of the road," Ron Stecklein said.

After the airplanes flew over and strafed the column of soldiers, the North Koreans didn't stick around. They left the two wounded soldiers where they lay. Villagers buried them in the same grave nearby a boulder. A helmet, some shells, a button, a glove and a shoe were among the items in the grave.

Wasinger's remains were identified by DNA testing in 2005. Two of his aunts, Lydia Brungardt and Mary Stecklein, had provided blood samples in the event his body was located during the search for lost American soldiers.

Wasinger joined the Army at 17. "I remember when he broke mom's glasses when her kissed her so hard when he left," Gottschalk said. Determined to enlist, he lied to Army officials about his age because no one would sign permission for him to join, Ron Stecklein said.

Initially stationed at Fort Riley, Wasinger was transferred to a fort in Kentucky, where his higher-ups discovered he was only 17 and discharged him. "They told him he wouldn't get in unless someone signed for him," Ron Stecklein said. Wasinger came back to Victoria and had his grandfather sign the necessary paperwork. He went back to the Army. Since he had already been through training, Wasinger was quickly sent to Japan. Soon afterward, he ended up in Korea.

Ron Stecklein noted that troops were sent to Korea under the command of Gen. Douglas MacArthur on July 25, 1950. Less than four months later, on Nov. 2, 1950, Wasinger was taken prisoner after a grueling battle with North Korean and Chinese soldiers. He and the others in his unit had been ordered to retreat and were marching along an escape route when they were captured.

Now that Wasinger's family has the chance to say where he will be buried, there was no question in their minds about Arlington. It is the place of highest honor for soldiers killed in action. "We decided after I thought about it, it was the ideal place for him to be," Ron Stecklein said. "He gave for this country and he died for it, and he deserves the best."

Four of Wasinger 's younger brothers also served in the military. Elmer Stecklein, the second son, spent four years in the U.S. Air Force, serving in the Pacific and stateside. Donnie Stecklein, the third son, was in the Army National Guard for eight months before transferring to the Army for three years. Donnie Stecklein died in 2002. Ron Stecklein was in the Army for three years, serving in Vietnam, Korea and Germany. Leroy Stecklein, the youngest brother, spent two years in the Army, serving in Europe.

Although Ron Stecklein has been the contact person between military officials and the family, Leroy Stecklein will make the trip to Hawaii to escort his oldest brother's remains to Arlington. Although he wishes he could go, Ron Stecklein's service-related health problems won't allow him to make the trip.

Wasinger's mother, Catherine Wasinger Stecklein Sander, died on May 16, 2001, four months before her son's remains were excavated in Korea.

The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Company, Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, has spent several years searching for and identifying the remains of American soldiers killed in North Korea. It was their work that led to last week's meeting with Wasinger's family.