Soldiers of the 9th Infantry Regiment made a desperate retreat as North Korean troops closed in around them. A wounded, 18-year-old Army Pfc. Luther Herschel Story feared his injuries would slow down his company, so he stayed behind to cover their withdrawal.Video above: A brief history of Memorial DayStory's actions in the Korean War on Sept. 1, 1950, would ensure he was remembered. He was awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military honor, which is now displayed alongside his portrait at the National Infantry Museum, an hour's drive from his hometown of Americus, Georgia.But Story was never seen alive again, and his resting place long remained a mystery."In my family, we always believed that he would never be found," said Judy Wade, Story's niece and closest surviving relative.That changed in April when the U.S. military revealed lab tests had matched DNA from Wade and her late mother to bones of an unidentified American soldier recovered from Korea in October 1950. The remains belonged to Story, a case agent told Wade over the phone. After nearly 73 years, he was coming home.A Memorial Day burial with military honors was scheduled for Monday at the Andersonville National Cemetery. A police escort with flashing lights escorted Story's casket through the streets of nearby Americus on Wednesday after it arrived in Georgia."I don't have to worry about him anymore," said Wade, who was born four years after her uncle went missing overseas. "I'm just glad he's home."Among those celebrating Story's return was former President Jimmy Carter. When Story was a young boy, according to Wade, his family lived and worked in Plains on land owned by Carter's father, James Earl Carter Sr.Jimmy Carter, 98, has been under hospice care at his home in Plains since February. Jill Stuckey, superintendent of the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park, said she shared the news about Story with Carter as soon as she heard it."Oh, there was a big smile on his face," Stuckey said. "He was very excited to know that a hero was coming home."Story grew up about 150 miles (241 kilometers) south of Atlanta in Sumter County, where his father was a sharecropper. As a young boy, Story, who had a keen sense of humor and liked baseball, joined his parents and older siblings in the fields to help harvest cotton. The work was hard, and it didn't pay much."Momma talked about eating sweet potatoes three times a day," said Wade, whose mother, Gwendolyn Story Chambliss, was Luther Story's older sister. "She used to talk about how at night her fingers would be bleeding from picking cotton out of the bolls. Everybody in the family had to do it for them to exist."The family eventually moved to Americus, the county's largest city, where Story's parents found better work. He enrolled in high school, but soon set his sights on joining the military in the years following World War II.In 1948, his mother agreed to sign papers allowing Story to enlist in the Army. She listed his birthdate as July 20, 1931. But Wade said she later obtained a copy of her uncle's birth certificate that showed he was born in 1932 — which would have made him just 16 when he joined.Story left school during his sophomore year. In the summer of 1950, he deployed with Company A of the 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment to Korea around the time the war began.On Sept. 1, 1950, near the village of Agok on the Naktong River, Story's unit came under attack by three divisions of North Korean troops that moved to surround the Americans and cut off their escape.Story seized a machine gun and fired on enemy soldiers crossing the river, killing or wounding about 100, according to his Medal of Honor citation. As his company commander ordered a retreat, Story rushed into a road and threw grenades into an approaching truck carrying North Korean troops and ammunition. Despite being wounded, he continued fighting."Realizing that his wounds would hamper his comrades, he refused to retire to the next position but remained to cover the company's withdrawal," Story's award citation said. "When last seen he was firing every weapon available and fighting off another hostile assault."Story was presumed dead. He would have been 18 years old, according to the birth certificate Wade obtained.In 1951, his father received Story's Medal of Honor at a Pentagon ceremony. Story was also posthumously promoted to corporal.About a month after Story went missing in Korea, the U.S. military recovered a body in the area where he was last seen fighting. The unidentified remains were buried with other unknown service members at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii.According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, more than 7,500 Americans who served in the Korean War remain missing or their remains have not been identified. That's roughly 20% of the nearly 37,000 U.S. service members who died in the war.Remains of the unknown soldier recovered near Agok were disinterred in 2021 as part of a broader military effort to determine the identities of several hundred Americans who died in the war. Eventually, scientists compared DNA from the bones with samples submitted by Wade and her mother before she died in 2017. They made a successful match.President Joe Biden announced the breakthrough on April 26 in Washington, joined by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol."Today, we can return him to his family," Biden said of Story, "and to his rest."

Ralph Puckett Jr. — a United States Army Ranger who led the defense against six Chinese assaults on a frozen hill in the Korean War — was presented with America's highest military award, the Medal of Honor, by President Joe Biden on Friday.Biden said that Puckett's initial reaction to receiving the Medal of Honor was to ask, "Why all the fuss? Can't they just mail it to me?" Biden said that after waiting more than 70 years to be recognized for his heroics, the ceremony was well-deserved."Col. Puckett, after 70 years rather than mail it to you I would have walked it to you," Biden said. "Your lifetime of service to our nation I think deserves a little bit of fuss."On Nov. 25, 1950, the then-first lieutenant led a company of 51 U.S. and nine South Korean soldiers against Chinese forces on what was called Hill 205, according to an award citation from the White House and an oral history given by Puckett.In the initial daylight assault on the hill, Puckett repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire, rallying pinned down U.S. troops to advance and take the hill from its defenders. But once night fell and temperatures on the hill dropped below freezing, Puckett and his command faced wave after wave of Chinese assaults attempting to retake the key location.It was estimated that hundreds of Chinese troops were involved in the attack against Puckett's group of five dozen, he said a video recorded for Witness to War, a compilation of oral histories from veterans.Sitting atop the hill looking out over the 360-degree perimeter the U.S. forces had set up — with the Chinese lines somewhere in the darkness beyond — Puckett could hear the sound of whistles and bugles."That was the way they coordinated with each other," he said of the Chinese forces. When the notes stopped, "we were hit with a mortar barrage and automatic weapons fire and shortly thereafter a shower of hand grenades."Puckett radioed in an artillery strike, stopping the Chinese advance. But a grenade fragment had left him with his first wound of the night.Six Chinese attacksThat assault was the first of what would be six attacks on the U.S. Rangers' perimeter into the early hours of Nov. 26."We were getting more and more pressure and had more and more people wounded" with each assault, Puckett said.Despite being wounded a second time, through five assaults Puckett was able to call on artillery, firing on points he determined in advance to hold off the Chinese troops."They were the overwhelming force that saved our goose," he said.Between 2 a.m. and 2:30 a.m., Puckett said the Chinese whistles and bugles sounded again.He radioed for another round of artillery but got bad news: the big guns had another mission, and Hill 205 would have to wait, the artillery unit said."We're crumbling. We're being overrun. I just gave my unit the order to withdraw," Puckett radioed back.His personal situation was dire. By now, he had been wounded three times and was lying in a foxhole "unable to do anything.""I could see three Chinese about 15 yards away from me and they were bayoneting or shooting some of my wounded Rangers," he recalled.Then hope ran up the hill."All of a sudden, two of my Rangers charged up the hill — Pfc. Billy G. Walls, Pfc. David L. Pollack — they shot the three Chinese, killing them I assume," Puckett said.The soldiers came over to their wounded commander."Walls said, 'Sir, are you hurt?' I thought that was the dumbest question I'd ever heard in my life," Puckett said.But aloud to the private Puckett said only, "I'm hurt bad. I can't move. Leave me behind."Disobeying ordersWalls ignored Puckett's order and scooped him up, threw him over his shoulder and began running down the hill as Pollack provided covering fire.They'd gone about 150 yards when Walls put Puckett down, saying he was too heavy to carry, Puckett recalled.Each private then grabbed a wrist and dragged their commander the rest of the way down Hill 205 on his backside."Not very ceremonially, but we made it," Puckett said.They found cover with three U.S. tanks, from which Puckett was able to call in a final artillery strike of white phosphorous and high explosives on the Chinese troops now occupying the hill."I certainly am pleased that Walls and Pollack disobeyed my order to leave me behind on the hill," Puckett said.An official Army history records that Puckett sustained wounds to both feet, his thighs, buttocks and left shoulder that night. His combat time in Korea was over.Puckett "distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty," the White House citation says. "(His) extraordinary heroism and selflessness above and beyond the call of duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of military service."Chinese forces drove Americans backWhile that night stands out for Puckett's heroism, it also marked the beginning of a difficult two years for U.S. forces in the Korean War.The strength of the Chinese forces that had come to the aid of the largely defeated North Korean army surprised the Americans, according to a U.S. Army history.Chinese attacks across the peninsula eventually pushed the U.S. forces and their United Nations allies back into South Korea. At one point, the southern capital of Seoul fell to Communist forces for the second time in months."The setback would cause the war to grind on for two and a half more years before ending in an uneasy Armistice on July 27, 1953," an Army history says.That armistice, resulting in the Korean Peninsula being divided between North and South along the 38th parallel, persists to this day."Korea is sometimes called the forgotten war, but those men who were there under Lt. Puckett's command will never forget his bravery," Biden said. "They'll never forget that he was right by their side through every minute of it. The people of the Republic of Korea haven't forgotten."South Korean President Moon Jae-in attended the ceremony, the first time a foreign leader has attended such an event. He lauded Puckett and said he and other American soldiers helped ensure his nation's freedom and democracy."Col. Puckett is a true hero of the Korean War. With extraordinary valor and leadership, he completed missions until the very end, defending Hill 205 and fighting many more battles requiring equal valiance," Moon said. "Without the sacrifice of veterans including Col. Puckett and the Eighth Army Rangers Company, the freedom and democracy we enjoy today couldn't have blossomed in Korea."Long road to highest honorBorn in Tifton, Georgia, in 1926, Puckett had a long career in the U.S. military, first enlisting as a private in 1943 during World War II. He was discharged in June 1945 to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, graduating four years later with a commission as a second lieutenant.After Korea, he also served an 11-month combat tour in Vietnam in 1967-68 in the 101st Airborne Division before retiring from active duty in 1971 with the rank of colonel.As a retiree, Puckett remain actively involved with the military affairs and in 1992 was one of the first people to be inducted into the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame.Puckett was originally awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions at Hill 205, but John Lock, a retired U.S. Army officer and assistant professor at the U.S. Military Academy, came across Puckett's story during research in the early 1990s and thought it met the criteria for the Medal of Honor, according to an account on the Army's website.In 2003 Lock began a process to get Puckett the Medal of Honor, but the petition was denied in 2007 and again on appeal in 2009, according to the report.Lock persevered, submitting a petition for an upgrade for Puckett after the military ordered a review of all awards in 2016.After that was denied, Lock was told of an alternate route, through the Army award corrections board. That was successful and last year the Medal of Honor for Puckett was approved, but Lock stressed that it was something that Puckett never pushed for."As we were going through the process and dead in the water, he appealed to me to stop because he didn't want me to continue wasting my time," Lock told the Army website.