Corporal Richard “Dickie” LeGrand Henderson, Jr.

- Unit: 7th Infantry Division, 57th Artillery Battalion, Headquarters Battery
- Date of Birth: April 8, 1932
- Entered the Military: October 31, 1949
- Date of Death: December 31, 1953
- Hometown: Lansing, New York
- Place of Death: Hagaru-ri, Chosin Reservoir, North Korea
- Award(s): Purple Heart, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Presidential Unit Citation and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal
- Cemetery: Courts of the Missing, Court Six, Honolulu Memorial, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. Pine Grove Cemetery Annex, Lansing, New York
Bronxville High School (Bronxville, New York)
2024/2025
Early Life
Richard LeGrand Henderson Jr., known as “Dickie” to his friends and family, was born on April 8, 1932 in Barton, New York. His parents, Richard Sr. (“Skip”) and Hazel, moved the family to the larger town of Lansing, New York. The family settled and lived in a small hamlet called Ludlowville, within the town limits of Lansing, just north of Ithaca. Richard grew up as the second oldest of six siblings – four boys and two girls.
According to his younger sister Shirley, Richard was a kind boy who was outgoing and friendly to the neighbors. She recalled that he had a small motorized scooter and he would give rides to the other kids in the neighborhood. Richard was always looking for fun and fellowship. His first love was basketball, and he could always be found in the local school yard practicing. He was on the school team and wore his lucky number, 6.
School
Richard always struggled in school. He had a difficult time sitting and focusing in class. He always seemed to be in minor trouble for talking out of turn and missing assignments. He was left-handed and struggled with basic penmanship. By the time he reached his teens, he was totally uninterested in school. He attended the small and now defunct Ludlowville Union School with the class of 1949. He fought with his parents about his goals and direction often. By the time he reached his senior year, he was feeling lost and looking to find a path. He ultimately dropped out of school in order to enlist in the U.S. Army.



Homefront
Ludlowville, New York was a very small town. It had a few brick buildings that included a post office and a few shops at the center of the hamlet. Doctors appointments, shopping and most major business was conducted in nearby Ithaca.
It was a small, tight knit community that was known mostly for a popular swimming hole under a waterfall where the kids would go and swim. Salmon Falls was a favorite spot for Richard Henderson. He spent much of his free time in the woods and trails surrounding the community.
By the 1940s, Lansing and its communities had lost the importance they once held as a center for mills and factory production. Richard Henderson’s high school class had fewer than 25 students. His sister, Shirley, recalled his last day in town, where Richard and his friends went to the school to play basketball together for what was to be the final time.


Military Experience
Richard Henderson’s enlistment began on Halloween 1949. He trained at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and later Fort Lawton, Washington. He was assigned to the 7th Infantry Division, 57th Artillery Battalion, Headquarters Battery. Officially designated as a “Field Wireman,” Henderson’s job was to organize, install, maintain, and repair communications between artillery battalions. His training would have included how to clean, maintain, transport, load, and fire the M101 105mm Howitzer.
Combat
The Headquarters Battery of an Artillery Battalion managed logistical support for the other batteries, coordinated fire missions, and managed communication. Henderson’s job would have required extensive knowledge of wiring and the ability to lay, maintain, test and repair wires. It would have been physically demanding with constant travel between various artillery units. He served in proximity to enemy fire in his duties to support ground missions with artillery fire.
Henderson’s file was partially lost to the 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, but we know that the 7th Infantry Division deployed to Camp Fuji, Japan, in June 1950.
31st Regimental Combat Team
In mid-November 1950, parts of the 7th InfantryDivision were attached to the 31st Regimental Combat Team, also known as “Task Force MacLean” and later “Task Force Faith.” This unit was created to support U.S. Marine Corps units advancing towards the Chinese border. Just as many felt the conflict was coming to an end, hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops counterattacked United Nations (UN) forces in North Korea in late October. The 31st Regimental Combat Team was dispatched to resist this attack.
Battle of the Chosin Reservoir
What became known as the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir was one of the challenging campaigns in U.S. military history. The terrain was extremely mountainous with few roads and difficult geography. Temperatures reached as low as -38 degrees. Soldiers were burdened with frozen food and medical supplies, malfunctioning equipment, and insufficient winter clothing. Thousands suffered frostbite. The approximately 3,200 members of Task Force Faith encountered constant and extreme close combat and suffered heavy casualties. In total, the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir led to over 15,000 UN casualties.
While it was a tactical defeat, it is seen as a moment of great courage for both the Army and Marine Corps. The veterans of this campaign are called “The Chosin Few.”
Private First Class Richard L. Henderson was last seen fighting the enemy in the area of Hagaru-ri, south of the Chosin Reservoir, on December 6, 1950. His unit’s position was overrun and he was declared missing a few days later.



Commemoration
Richard Henderson was officially declared dead on December 31, 1953. Shirley Kelly, Richard’s sister, recalls that their home was never quite the same. Henderson’s parents had not been in agreement over his decision to join the Army, and when he passed there was a bitterness between his father and mother. His mother would start crying at random times for the rest of her life. Henderson’s father, who encouraged and permitted him to enlist, never forgave himself for his decision. He suffered constantly from vivid nightmares. Even though his parents and siblings eventually moved away eventually, Richard’s sister, Vera, purchased a plot in their home town in case he was ever recovered.
There was no news of Richard Henderson for over 50 years.
On August 1, 2018, 55 boxes of remains were returned to the United States from North Korea. On June 30, 2020, the remains of Corporal Richard L. Henderson were identified. He was laid to rest in the plot purchased by his sister Vera in Lansing, New York on July 23, 2021. HIs funeral was well attended by his surviving family and friends, including his two sisters and many nieces and nephews.
Richard Henderson is the epitome of a Silent Hero. He never graduated from school, had a job, got married, or had children. He never owned a house or purchased a car. He was a young man who was well-liked by his friends and loved by his family. He was from a small, out-of-the-way place, and his life was cut tragically short in the freezing mountains of North Korea. But his brief life impacted the people around him in profound ways, and those who remember him do so fondly. His sacrifice deserved to be commemorated.





Bibliography
Primary Sources
Clock System Rural Index Lansing Township 1920. Map. 1920. New York Heritage Digital Collection. https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15085coll6/id/4635/rec/1.
Kelly, Shirley. Phone interview with author. January 14, 2025.
New York. Tioga County. 1940 U.S. Federal Census. Digital images. https://ancestry.com.
New York. Tompkins County. 1950 U.S. Federal Census. Digital images. https://ancestry.com.
Richard L. Henderson, Jr. New York State, Birth Index, 1881-1942. Digital images. https://ancestry.com.
Richard L. Henderson, Jr. U.S., World War I, World War II, and Korean War Casualty Listings. Digital images. https://ancestry.com.
Secondary Sources
“522nd Field Artillery Battalion.” Go For Broke. Accessed May 9, 2025. https://goforbroke.org/history/unit-history/522nd-field-artillery-battalion/.
“Battle of the Chosin Reservoir.” Chosin Few. Accessed May 9, 2025. https://chosinfew.org/.
Conlon, Jennie H. Echoes of Lansing Yesteryears. DeWitt Historical Society of Tompkins County, 1970. https://www.tcpl.org/sites/default/files/content/archive/Echoes_of_Lansing.pdf.
“Corp. Richard LeGrand ‘Dickie’ Henderson Jr.” Find a Grave. Updated October 24, 2013. Accessed May 9, 2025. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/119233648/richard-legrand-henderson.
“Corporal Richard Legrand Henderson, Jr.” The Ithaca Journal [Ithaca, NY], July 20, 2021. Newspapers.com (750394769).
“CPL Richard LeGrand ‘Dickie’ Henderson Jr.” Find a Grave. Updated July 13, 2018. Accessed May 9, 2025. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/191349901/richard-legrande-henderson.
“CPL Richard LeGrand Henderson.” Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. Accessed May 9, 2025. https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt00000001UzdEAE.
“CPL Richard LeGrand Henderson Jr.” Korean War Project. Accessed May 9, 2025. https://www.koreanwar.org/html/12895/korean-war-project-new-york-ra12348967-cpl-richard-legrand-henderson-jr/.
“Richard LeGrand Henderson Jr.” American Battle Monuments Commission. Accessed May 9, 2025. https://www.abmc.gov/decedent-search/henderson%3Drichard.
“Lansing soldier who went MIA during Korean War has been accounted for and will be buried July 23.” Finger Lakes 1, July 2, 2021. https://www.fingerlakes1.com/2021/07/02/lansing-soldier-who-went-mia-during-korean-war-has-been-accounted-for-and-will-be-buried-july-23/.
Martin, William. “Lansing Historical Association Fall 2023 Newsletter.” Lansing Historical Association. Fall 2023. https://lansinghistory.com/home/newsletters/current-newsletter.
Parish, Isabelle H. It Happened in Lansing, DeWitt Historical Society of Tompkins County, 1964. https://www.tcpl.org/sites/default/files/content/archive/It_Happened_in_Lansing.pdf.
“Richard Legrand Henderson.” American Battle Monuments Commission. https://www.abmc.gov/decedent-search/henderson%3Drichard.
“Richard LeGrand Henderson.” Honor States. Accessed May 9, 2025. https://www.honorstates.org/profiles/177984/.
Seelinger, Matthew J. “Nightmare at the Chosin Reservoir.” The Army Historical Foundation. Accessed May 9, 2025. https://armyhistory.org/nightmare-at-the-chosin-reservoir/.
“Soldier Accounted for From Korean War (Henderson, R.)” Press Release. July 1, 2021. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/ID-Announcements/Article/2245324/soldier-accounted-for-from-korean-war-henderson-r/.
“Those who came home.” The Ithaca Journal [Ithaca, NY], May 28, 2018. Newspapers.com (435283224).
This profile was researched and created through the Researching Silent Heroes program, sponsored by the American Battle Monuments Commission.