Gene Putzier, US Army, Korean War

Gene lost his life in a North Korean prison in Pyongyang, North Korea, in October of 1950. On July 30, 2009, he received his Purple Heart.

Though only a teenage boy, he served his country. Sent to Korea in the first days of the Korean War, the North Koreans captured him, marched him to Taejon where he joined hundreds of other American captives, and marched them to Seoul. While imprisoned in a school there, he and the other prisoners signed a chalkboard.

After the Marines landed at Inchon, the North Koreans marched their prisoners into North Korea to Pyongyang.

On both legs of the march, prisoners died of malnutrion, wounds, and at the hands of the North Korean guards. By the time they reached Pyongyang, those left were weak, starving and near death.

Gene Putzier died in that camp, just days before the North Koreans put the remaining prisoners on a train, stopped at the Sunchon Tunnel, took them off the train in small groups, and executed them.

When Joyce and I wrote the book Sunchon Tunnel Massacre Survivors, we interviewed Gene's sister, Nancy Zeman. She was a young child when her older brother joined the Army. Nancy and her other brother, Richard, attended a reunion to meet the survivors in Branson in 2007.

Nancy and Richard applied for the Purple Heart for Gene 49 years ago. Today they're proud that Gene finally received recognition.