Teenage warrior
by David Simon
News-Post Staff

	This insignia represents Pfc. Charles Robert's rank at the time of his disappearance.
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At 17, U.S. Army Pfc. Charles C. Roberts may have been even less ready for combat than his fellow reinforcements.

Roberts and the other soldiers in the 29th Infantry Regiment were sent to South Korea in July 1950 to bolster the inexperienced South Korean Army, which was being routed consistently by the North Korean People's Army. The Korean War was a little more than a month old.

A resident of Ijamsville, Roberts belonged to the 1st Battalion, B Company, and like most of the early units deployed to South Korea his was not prepared for combat operations.

Although the battalions were at full strength, more than half the men had been with their units for less than two weeks. Some soldiers literally arrived on Okinawa, the regiment's home base, and deployed to South Korea that same day; they received rudimentary weapons training, conducted during the short trip from Okinawa to Pusan, South Korea. They often lacked adequate artillery, anti-tank weapons and communication gear.

On July 27, 1950, Roberts' battalion was assigned to guard a northern route that led to American defenses; B Company was sent about nine miles north of the rest of the battalion, to the town of Anui.

By early afternoon, B Company was setting up a position on the west side of town when the North Koreans attacked. In the evening, amid a heavy artillery barrage, three columns of North Korean soldiers closed on Anui, forcing the survivors to withdraw.

At that point, the road to the south had been blocked, and only about half of the soldiers made it back to American lines.

Roberts was among those missing in action.

The Army doesn't know exactly what happened to Roberts. The military issued a presumptive finding of death Dec. 31, 1953.

The Army did have one lead for Roberts. At the end of the war, more than 4,000 American prisoners of war were repatriated and debriefed. One man reported seeing Roberts, but the Army believes the soldier may have mistaken him for someone else - not an uncommon occurrence.

He reported Roberts was captured in late 1950 deep in North Korea, while serving with the 1st Cavalry Division. Four men from his regiment, also named Roberts, were lost during that battle, none with the first name of Charles.

Over 14 days in May and June 1954, members of the 114th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company searched 17 1,000- by-1,000-meter-square grids of the Anui battlefield. All foxholes, bunkers and trenches were excavated and the earth sifted; South Korean residents were interviewed.

No one was able to come up with any information about Roberts.