In Korea during September 1950 as American soldiers were retreating south, many were captured along with civilian missionaries. These westerners were herded together and forced to march long distances with no attention to their wounds and little if any food or water.

On one such march a group consisting of soldiers and Christian workers were told not to allow anyone to drop out of the column, even if they died. When people did drop out, some dead, the north Korean major in charge demanded to know who was responsible for his orders not being followed, and threatened to shoot them all. From the column stepped Lieutenant Cordus Thornton who said he was responsible for the people dropping out. Thornton explained, to make the survivors carry the dead was to condemn them to death as well. In an act of moral courage, Lieutenant Thornton was accepting responsibility. The North Korean major acted as expected.

They tied a cloth around Thornton's eyes then the major lifted the flap of the pile cap, shoved his pistol to the young lieutenant's head and pulled the trigger.

An American NCO dragged the lieutenant to the side of the road and began digging a grave with a stick. Others joined in, some using only their hands until they had a shallow grave into which they laid Cordus Thornton. The march and atrocities continued.

Source: Maihafer, Harry J. Brave Decisions, pp. 192-3

Compiled by the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps Historian Fort Gregg-Adams, Virginia