Cpl. Clark Worline was reported missing in action on Nov. 26, 1950, while serving in Korea with the Charlie Company, 2nd Chemical Mortar Battalion, Eighth U.S. Army. The Army declared him dead on Dec. 31, 1953. The late Dupont native was finally returned home for his 93rd birthday Friday.
DUPONT — It was a ceremony befitting a forgotten hero as the late Cpl. Clark E. Worline was laid to rest Friday — 73 years after the Dupont native was reported missing in action during the Korean War.
The late soldier’s remains were finally returned Friday on what would be his 93rd birthday, to his fourth and final resting place in Fairview Cemetery.
“They tell us that the Korean War is the forgotten war,” said Tammy Puff, a military and veteran liaison for Gov. Mike DeWine. “Looking around this room, I don’t think it’s been forgotten.”
Worline was 20 years old when he was reported missing in action on Nov. 26, 1950, while the Dupont native was serving in a mortar battalion in the Korean War.
His unit reported the disappearance not long after a battle with the Chinese People’s Volunteer Forces in Sinjang, North Korea. The young soldier was still missing three years later, so on Dec. 31, 1953, the Army formally declared Worline dead.
It wasn’t until 2019 that Worline’s remains were identified through DNA testing and dental records, so the Army could return the remains to his family.
Another 7,600 soldiers like Worline who went missing during the Korean War remain unaccounted for while hundreds of soldiers’ remains may never be identified, according to Department of Defense’s POW/MIA accounting agency.
Friday’s funeral service was the final installment of an elaborate procession from the Dayton International Airport to Fairview Cemetery, which started Tuesday as the Rolling Thunder crew rode through Ottawa and Kalida en route to Love-Heitmeyer Funeral Home in Jackson Township.
Hundreds of spectators lined U.S. 224 to watch the procession Tuesday, while a smaller crowd of fellow veterans and Worline’s surviving family attended Friday’s service.
Representatives from the Army presented Worline’s nephew with the late soldier’s military honors, including a Purple Heart award and National Defense Service Medal, as members from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion and Patriot Guard Riders saluted Worline one last time.
“I would like to tell you all of these things so you could get to know Clark and how he grew up to serve his country in Korea,” said Tim Worline, his second cousin, “but I can’t. All that information has been lost to the ravages of time, the fading of memories and the loss of those who would have remembered.”
But “the Korean War has not been forgotten,” said Puff, the veteran liasion, “nor has Clark.”
