Hometown: Durand, IL
Branch: U.S. Army
Unit: L Company, 3rd Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division
Military Honors: Purple Heart
Date of Sacrifice: March 24, 1953 - KIA in Kangwon Province, North Korea (presumed)
Age: 21 
Conflict: Korean War, 1950-1953

He wanted to be a farmer near his hometown. Instead, Charles Long answered the call when his country needed him.

Along with his parents, Henry and Mable (Harvey) Long and younger brother, Thomas, Charles lived in the small community of Durand, Illinois, near the Illinois-Wisconsin border. The family attended St. Mary’s Catholic Church on the edge of town.

As a young man, Long satisfied his ambition by keeping a few goats and pigs. He also worked as a hand on the nearby Meissen Brothers’ farm after school.

Known as “Chuck” to his friends at Durand High School, he was vice president of the Future Farmers of America (FFA). Mrs. Ione Meissen recalled, “He dearly loved to come out and work for us while in high school…I knew sometimes he’d skip out early from school to get out to the farm and get on the tractor—ready to go. He had a great enthusiasm for farming.”

Long graduated with 12 others in the Durand High School class of 1949 and began full-time work on the Meissens’ farm.

Dark clouds on the horizon

In the late 1940s, tensions were high on the world stage as communism expanded beyond the Soviet Union, into China, and threatened to overrun the Korean Peninsula.

Not far removed from World War II (1939-1945), the United States and its Western allies grew concerned as communist nations—now with nuclear weapons—sought to achieve global dominance and spread their ideology to newly independent nations.

For the third time in less than a half-century, America again had to prepare for a global conflict. A mandatory draft of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines was coming.

Chuck Long’s friend and classmate, Bob Adleman, remembered, “He and I were both rated 1A [the highest rating to be drafted]. We knew we’d be called soon. We didn’t know whether to enlist or wait to be drafted. We went and talked to Hank Long, and I decided to enlist in the Navy in September of 1951, for four years. Chuck decided since he had a summer job, he’d wait to be drafted.”

Answering the call

After three years of farming, Long was drafted into the United States Army, reporting to Fort Sheridan in Illinois on July 21, 1952. From there, he was sent to Camp Breckenridge, Kentucky for training as an infantryman.

In a letter to his family dated August 16, 1952, Long wrote, “Last week we learned how to handle our rifle the Army way. They say there is 3 ways of doing things—the right way, the wrong way, and the Army way.”

In another letter (September 13, 1952) he described, “We have got a good first sergeant. The other day we were marching back from the rifle range, and some of the guys weren’t keeping in step, so he was walking along side of them, throwing fire-crackers under [their] feet.”

Private Long was selected for Leadership School, which bought him two extra months in the U.S. as most of the rest of his company shipped out for Korea. He reported to Fort Lawton in Seattle, Washington on January 19, 1953, where he boarded a ship bound for Japan ten days later.

After a rocky 23-day voyage across the Pacific Ocean, Private Long arrived in Japan and later Korea—and was assigned to L Company, 3rd Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. More training and preparation followed, and Long was moved to the front lines on March 19, 1953.

Less than two months after arriving in Korea, on March 24, 1953, Private Long’s 31st Infantry Regiment was engaging enemy forces north of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)—a buffer zone where both sides agreed to remove military forces and weapons. The battle occurred near what the Army designated as Hill 255, known to the soldiers as “Pork Chop Hill” because its shape on a map roughly resembled a pork chop.

Four men from L Company were reported Missing in Action (MIA) following fierce fighting with Chinese Communist Forces at Pork Chop Hill. The bodies of two of the missing soldiers were recovered. A third missing soldier was captured and later returned alive in a prisoner exchange under Operation Big Switch. Private Charles H. Long remained unaccounted for.

While listed as Missing in Action, Private Long was promoted to the rank of Private First Class.

The wait for answers

A year after PFC Long’s disappearance near Pork Chop Hill, on March 24, 1954, a military review board declared him to be “presumed dead.” It would take another 52 years for some certainty about Charles’ fate to reach his family.

In comments made to Durand’s local newspaper, The Volunteer, Long’s sister-in-law, Joyce Long, recalled what it was like hoping for some good news about Charles. “They would have prisoner exchanges,” she said, “The names would roll on the TV. We’d sit close and watch and when his name wasn’t there, we’d sigh and wait for the next group. It was so hard on his family.”

Less than four months after PFC Long was lost, the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed on July 27, 1953, ending organized combat operations and leaving the Korean Peninsula divided.

53 years later, answers about what happened to PFC Long became clearer. According to a November 21, 2006, press release from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency:

In 1993, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) gave United Nations officials 33 boxes with human remains of alleged U.S. servicemen who were unaccounted-for. The DPRK recovered the remains near Komsa-ri in Kangwon Province, which was near Long’s last known location. Also included in one of the boxes were Long’s social security and identification cards and identification tags.

Along with the physical ID evidence, forensic scientists use DNA technology and dental records to conclude that PFC Charles H. Long was among the remains returned by North Korea. He was 21 years old when he made the ultimate sacrifice for his country.

On November 25, 2006, PFC Charles H. Long’s extended family finally laid him to rest near his hometown—with full military honors—in a plot purchased by his parents more than 50 years earlier. Long’s parents and younger brother Tom didn’t live long enough to know, with certainty, the fate of their son and brother.

In Honolulu, Hawaii, PFC Long’s name is engraved on the American Battle Monument Commission’s “Courts of the Missing” (Court 6), along with others missing from the Korean War. As is the custom, a rosette has been placed next to his name to indicate that he has been found.

Sources
Details and photo provided by Mrs. Patty Land, PFC Long’s niece
Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency: Soldier Missing In Action From The Korean War Is Identified (Long)
The Durand Gazette, Apr. 16, 1953: Charles H. Long Missing In Action
The Volunteer, Nov. 2, 2006: Durand soldier finally coming home
National Veterans Memorial and Museum: Korean War: Battle of Pork Chop Hill (Hill 255)
History.net: Korean War: Battle on Pork Chop Hill
The Barre Montpelier Times Argus, Nov. 23, 2006: Korean War soldier’s remains identified
Burial Site: Find a Grave