"This Gallant Officer"

MISSING IN ACTION

Pfc. Harry Z. Carnes, son of Mrs. Pearl Carnes, 3702 6th St., Detroit, Mich.

Major General William F. Dean, husband of Mrs. Mildred Dern Dean, residing in the Far East Command. He is the son of Mrs. Elizabeth Frishe Dean, 2518 1/2 Etna St., Berkeley, Calif.

Pvt. Benjamin P. Ferguson, son of Mrs. Laura Shoemaker, General Delivery, East Moline, Ill. . . .

--Defense Department Casualty List No. 37

Listing him between two G.I.s of his division who shared his fate, the U.S. Army formally announced last week that General Dean was missing in Korea.

When war broke out in Korea, rugged, good-natured Bill Dean was in command of the 24th Infantry Division in Japan.

Rushed to Korea after the Reds launched their invasion, Dean led his division in hard-fought delaying actions from the Han River to Taejon.

As Red tanks broke into Taejon last week, Dean was up at the front, worked with his bazooka squads. Said a corporal: "The general took a couple of men downtown and went after two tanks. I saw him passing ammunition to the men and directing fire. He was doing a damn good job, too." As more & more Reds poured into the city, Dean told the men around him: "I want all of you boys to get out." Dean himself stayed. One correspondent reported seeing him last in the streets of Taejon, saying with a grin: "I just got me a Red tank." Another correspondent said the general was last seen sitting, dejected, on the porch of his command post.

For two days, that was the last word from Bill Dean. Then an aide reported that Dean had apparently managed to get out of Taejon, after all. He had last seen him in the mountains outside the burning city as the general went to look for more stragglers. "You can wait for me," he told his companions. But at week's end they were still waiting in vain.

General Dean, a career officer of nearly 30 years' service, distinguished himself as a fearless and able commander in World War II (during which his hair turned practically white). His 44th Infantry Division drove through Germany into Austria, helped force the surrender of the Nineteenth German army, took 30,000 prisoners. General Dean was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross "for extraordinary heroism in action . . . outstanding leadership and utter disregard for personal safety." Said General Douglas MacArthur last week: "It is still hoped that this gallant officer, if alive, has not fallen into enemy hands."

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