Yonkers Insider: Veterans of Foreign Wars - VFW : Yonkers NY: Post 1666.

Source: Veterans of Foreign Wars - VFW : Yonkers NY: Post 1666.

On this day in 1951, a 19 year old soldier from Palisade Ave, Yonkers NY was Killed in Action, fighting in Korea.

Edwin Nathanial Love was the son of Edwin W. and Leola Love. His farther worked for Otis Elevator and his mother worked as a domestic worker for a private household. Edwin N. grew up the second child of five siblings. The family lived on Irving and then 154 Palisade Ave. He attended Public School Six, Longfellow Junior High School and Saunders Trade School. Edwin attended Sunday school and worshiped at Messiah Baptist Church on Warburton Ave.

As a youth, Edwin N. played in the Fife and Drum Corps for the American Legion Samuel H. Dow post. He also was a Boy Scout and played sports for the Yonkers Police Athletic League. After School he would work delivering newspapers in the Bronx.

Edwin N. was employed by the Mutual Life Insurance Company. He had enlisted, in the United States Armey, on his 17th birthday, 19 October 1948 with plans of making the Army a career. He received Basic training at Fort Dix New Jersey. He remained at Fort Dix the end of 1949 when he was transferred to the Quartermaster Corps at Fort Lee Virginia. Private First Class Love was assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division and sent to Camp Stoneman in Pittsburg, California for debarkation to the Korean peninsula.

His unit landed in Korea in August 1950, and began pushing north--encountering dead bodies along the way, a grim foreshadowing of what was to come Two weeks after arriving in Korea the 2nd Infantry Division led the breakout on the Pusan Perimeter. Edwin N. Love was promoted to Corporal assigned to the Service Battery, 503rd Field Artillery Battalion serving as an ammunition carrier for the 155 millimeter Howitzers. During the Home by Christmas offensive, the 2nd ID pushed the North Koreans within 50 miles of the Yual River. The boarder between North Korea and Manchuria China. The Chinese Peoples Volunteer Army (PVA) then launched a massive surprise attack (called the Second Phase) pushing the United Nations Forces all the way down past the 38th Parallel and capturing the South Korean Capital of Seoul. The 503rd had covered the retreat of the U.N. forces by bombarding the advancing Chinese and then falling back to safer positions. During the Battle of Kunu-ri in November 1950, his unit was surrounded by Chinese forces, pinned against a mountain.

Around the city of Hogchon on the banks of Hongcheon River in central Korea the units were finally able to stop the enemy advance.

The 2nd I.D. led by the 8th Army set up defensive position in mid-January. On February 11 the PVA launched another massive human wave attack of an estimated 30,000 soldiers against the approximately 6,000 United Nation defenders comprised of mostly the 2nd I.D. and a French Battalion. The 2nd ID including the 503rd fought furiously in an attempt to create an opening so their entrapped comrades could fall back to a safer area. The effort was successful and the Unit would ultimately receive the Presidential Unit Citation for their Valorous and Courageous Actions in that bloody engagement.

On the 12th of February 1951 Corporal Love was reported as Missing in Action (MIA). Several weeks later the UN forces were able to push the communist forces back to the 38th parallel and the remains of CPl. Edwin Love were recovered. In Early September 1951 Cpl. Love was returned to the United States along with the remains of 519 other brave men aboard the ship Alamo Victory. Corporal Loves remains were then sent to the Brooklyn Army base before arriving home to Yonkers on 14 Sept 1951. Corporal Love was the first Yonkers Man to have his remains returned home from the Korean Conflict.

A wake with memorial service was held at Pryor and Brooks funeral home and funeral with religious services were held at Messiah Baptist Church. The Young Hero was then interred at Mount Hope Cemetery in Hastings on the Hudson with full military honors.

Corporal Edwin N. Love is the recipient of the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, Korean Service Medal, United Nations Service Medal, Korean Presidential Unit Citation, (2) Presidential Unit Citations , Republic of Korea War Service Medal and the Purple Heart. The City of Yonkers names the Street at Palisade Ave and Walsh Road in his Honor.

Let Us Never Forget the Service and Sacrifice of this True American Hero. This Son of Yonkers Who left to Fight for Freedom and Gave His Life in the Service of Our Great Nation. Let US Always Remember Corporal Edwin Nathaniel Love.