Harold Samsel came back from Korea. Denzil Samsel didn’t.
Today, both brothers will be honored when Harold Samsel is buried at Willamette National Cemetery in Portland. Samsel, a Carson resident, died on June 9. He was 84.
His older brother was 22 when he was captured by enemy forces in North Korea on Nov. 4, 1950. He died in a POW camp and his remains were never recovered.
Denzil will be remembered today as part of the service when Harold Samsel is buried.
Laura Goree said she and her dad had talked about a memorial for Denzil, but Harold didn’t care for the idea of honoring Denzil in his absence.
“He said, ‘No. What will we do when they bring him home?'”
Now, Goree said, “We can finalize things.”
The Samsels are one of many American families whose service members never came home. Goree said she and her father made three or four trips to Washington, D.C., for briefings hosted by the Pentagon’s Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office.
There were never any official updates regarding Denzil’s remains. “The North Koreans have never allowed us to search Camp 5,” where Denzil died, Goree said.
While his remains were never recovered, Denzil Samsel still is entitled to a veteran’s marker and memorial service, said George Allen, director of the Willamette National Cemetery.
This sort of tribute for brothers who died more than 63 years apart is pretty rare, Allen said, but it’s a family decision.
“If they want to commemorate both at the same time, the family can,” Allen said. “One is an internment and the other is ‘in memory of.'”
On Nov. 4, 1950, Denzil Samsel was part of a 24th Infantry Division force facing Chinese troops northeast of Anju, North Korea. Pulling back in the face of a heavy Chinese assault, his unit — C Company, 1st Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment — often acted as a rear guard and bore the heaviest portion of the fighting. According to a report from the American Battle Monuments Commission, Samsel was captured during this moving battle.
At Camp 5, “He expired during January or February of 1951, of exhaustion and malnutrition, and possibly pneumonia,” according to the commission report. “The Army, not having an exact date, later set 28 February 1951 for records purposes. He was then buried by fellow POWs on rising ground behind the camp.”
Harold Samsel, meanwhile, was part of the pivotal Chosin Reservoir campaign. It ended when American troops withdrew from North Korea in December 1950, after inflicting heavy losses on the Red Chinese forces. Her dad was awarded a Bronze Star for his actions in the campaign, Goree said.
Unlike many families that are still in limbo, the Samsels do have some credible information about the fate of their absent soldier. It came two or three years ago from another man who had been a POW in Camp 5.
“My father talked to one of the people who buried Denzil,” Goree said. “They identified him through the dogtags that they buried with the body.
“Dad was able to thank him.”
