On the Case of the Korean War Marker

The widow Joyce Feazell asked me to find a tombstone noted by her late husband, John Feazell, on a propaganda pamphlet dropped by the North Koreans in Korea about 1952.

Here’s the back of the pamphlet:

Note John’s hand-written note:

Found near the fort of GI Baldy, 26 March. Is it true?
So I told Joyce I didn’t know, but I’d take the case.

The back of the pamphlet has a transcription of the tombstone pictured:

IN MEMORY OF 19 YEAR OLD
P.F.C. JAMES WARING HORNING JR. U.S.M.C.R.
KILLED IN ACTION DECEMBER 2, 1950
YDAM-NI CHOSIN RESERVOIR KOREA

THE INCOMPETENT, GREEDY, CONFUSED POLITICIANS
ELECTED IN 1948 WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS
BOY BEING MURDERED IN KOREA

A bit of googling found the soldier was real; he is written in up in a Korean War Remembrance Project:

PFC JAMES WARING HORNING JR
5th Marine Regiment
D CO 2 BN
1st Marine Division
Marines
Hostile, Died (KIA)
Date Of Loss: December 2, 1950
Service Number: 1042294
SAVANNAH, GA
Location of Loss: CHOSIN RESERVOIR – YUDAM-NI
Born: October 18, 1931

Comments: Private First Class Horning was a member of Company D, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division. He was Killed in Action while fighting the enemy in Korea on December 2, 1950.

Korean War Project Key No: 13772

Here’s more about him:

Private First Class Horning was awarded the Purple Heart, the Combat Action Ribbon, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal and the Korean War Service Medal.

And apparently yes, it’s true that there was such a marker. Google books has scanned a book, Sentimental Savannah: Reflections on a Southern City’s Past, by Polly Powers Stramm. It says:

A Father’s Bitterness Over War Lives Forever

‘Inscribed, in part, on the imposing granite marker in the small graveeyard near Bloomingdale are angry words: “The incompetent, greedy, confused politicians…were responsible for this boy being murdered.”

‘These words were etched on the marker after Marine PFC James Waring Horning, Jr. was killed in action at Yudam-Ni, Chosin Reservoir, Korea. Horning’s father, nicknamed, “Judge,” ordered the huge memorial after he learned of his only son’s death. The elder Horning already had lost a wife and a daughter, friends said.’

There’s much more about him in the book, including excerpts from letters written to and from Korea.

OK, so where is the tombstone now?

-jsq