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Remember...Herbert Gilmore Sayre
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Herbert Gilmore Sayre was born at Capehart, Mason County, West Virginia, on December 12, 1928, to parents Theodore Larry Sayre and Doris Vay Wolfe Sayre. Some documents (such as his Find A Grave memorial [No. 85605360]) give his middle name as Gilmon, but official documents (such as his listing at the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency) consistently list it as Gilmore. The family would be joined two years later by Theodore Larry Sayre Jr. and then nearly eleven years later by Louis Sayre.
Presumably, Herbert obtained his education in local schools, but as a 22-year-old single man in 1950, there was a strong likelihood that he would be drafted because of the looming Korean War. Enlisting in the U.S. Army, he was assigned to Company B, 2nd Engineer Combat Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. Rising to the rank of corporal, Herbert Sayre became a victim of the infamous Battle of the Chosin Reservoir, summarized below:
This battle, which occurred early in the Korean War, was part of the Chinese Second Offensive in late 1950 to drive the United Nations forces out of North Korea. Key players among the Allies in the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir were the 1st Marine Division, part of the U.S. X Corps, which also included several Army divisions. X Corps had landed at Inchon in September 1950 and pursued the Korean People's Army into North Korea. General Douglas MacArthur, of the United Nations Command, had ordered the U.S. Eighth Army to advance up the western side of the Korean peninsula crossing the 38th parallel, at the same time deploying the X Corps around the peninsula to Korea's eastern coast.
The Chinese had anticipated this offensive and were sending support to North Korea. In late October 1950, the Chinese People's Volunteers Force was ordered to move against the Eighth Army. This Chinese First Offensive proved damaging to the Eighth Army, but in early November, a U.S. Marine and South Korean unit successfully defeated an attacking Chinese and North Korean force. MacArthur underestimated both the fighting ability of the CPVF and the severity of the weather, ordering the Eighth to advance over a single unpaved road through the heart of the T'aebaek Mountains. According to historian Allen R. Millett,
The X Corps' first objective, the village of Hagaru-ri, rested near the southern tip of the reservoir, a narrow mountain lake that provided hydroelectric power to the mining industries of northern Korea. The lake's proper name is the Chang-jin Reservoir, but, during Japan's annexation of Korea (1910-45), its name had been changed to Chosen, the Japanese name for Korea. Through successive translations and hurried mapmaking, the reservoir became known as Chosin and remains so to this day for American veterans of the Korean War. By any name it was a cold barren battleground where deep foxholes could be dug into the frozen earth only with the help of explosives and bulldozers. ("Battle of the Chosin Reservoir," Encyclopaedia Britannica, last updated 21 March 2025, accessed 15 April 2025, https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-the-Chosin-Reservoir.)
The final march to the reservoir began on November 13 and reached Hagaru-ri on November 15. The 31st Infantry Regiment, known as Task Force MacLean, included 3,200 Americans and Koreans. It strengthened the defenses of Hagaru-ri and built a rough airfield. The United Nations Command remained unready both in terms of weaponry and cold-weather preparations. The Chinese were aware of these vulnerabilities. When they attacked on November 27, the major Marine positions held, but Task Force MacLean did not. The surviving soldiers managed to struggle on foot and in small, disorganized groups around the frozen reservoir or directly across the ice to Hagaru-ri, but they were no longer capable of combat. Given that the UNC troops were decimated, the Truman administration soon discarded the policy of unifying Korea by force, though it still wanted to save the Republic of Korea. Operations continued through December of 1950 and January of 1951. Again, according to Millett:
The Chosin Reservoir campaign was a geographic victory for the Chinese, for the X Corps, instead of redeploying to Wonsan, was forced to return to South Korea, where it became part of the Eighth Army in January 1951. Nevertheless, the campaign ruined the CPVF Ninth Army Group, which did not return to the front until March 1951, and it convinced the UNC that allied ground troops could defeat Chinese armies, however numerous. The Chinese have remained vague on their losses in the battle, but their own records and UNC estimates put the Ninth Army Group's casualties in the range of 40,000 to 80,000, when one counts combat deaths and wounded plus deaths and incapacity from the cold. The 1st Marine Division lost 4,385 to combat and 7,338 to the cold. Other X Corps losses amounted to some 6,000 Americans and Koreans.
How does Herbert Gilmore Sayre's service and sacrifice fit into this complex military history? According to an email originated by Jake Baker and transmitted by Steve Halstead (24 November 2022), by mid-November 1950, the U. S. Eighth Army had pushed into North Korea and was approximately sixty miles from the border of North Korea and China. On November 25, Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) suddenly and fiercely attacked along the entire Eighth Army front with a force of approximately 300,000 troops. The 2nd Infantry Division, located the farthest north of any units at the Chongchon River, could not halt the CCF advance and was ordered to withdraw to defensive positions at Sunchon. As the division moved between Kunu-ri and Sunchon, the CCF attacked again. The division suffered many casualties in the series of rear guard actions fought during this withdrawal.
| Sergeant Herbert Gilmore Sayre, who joined the U.S. Army from West Virginia, served with B Company, 2nd Engineer Combat Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was captured by enemy forces on December 1, 1950, during the withdrawal to Sunchon. In January 1951, he was marched with fellow captives to Camp 5 at Pyoktong, North Korea, where he died of pneumonia on February 10, 1951. He was buried near the camp by his fellow prisoners. His remains have not been recovered. Sergeant Sayre is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. |  Honolulu Memorial, National Cemetery of the Pacific. Courtesy of American Battle Monuments Commission |
 Military marker for Sgt. Herbert G. Sayre in Wolfe Valley Cemetery. Find A Grave photo (Memorial No. 85605360) courtesy of Jim and Elizabeth |
Records following his death refer to Sergeant Sayre, and this is likely a posthumous promotion. He received both the Prisoner of War Medal and the Purple Heart. A military marker (cenotaph, because no remains have been recovered) was placed at Wolfe Valley Cemetery in Leon, Mason County, West Virginia. |
Article prepared by Patricia Richards McClure
April 2025
West Virginia Archives and History welcomes any additional information that can be provided about these veterans, including photographs, family names, letters and other relevant personal history.
