PFC Robert "Bobby" Albert Kueny 1929 - 1950

KUENY

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 10/2/2023 at 16:37:21

Sioux City Journal
30 December 1950

HORNICK MARINE KILLED IN KOREA

A Hornick marine who in his last letter from the Korean front wrote his parents "not to send anything for Christmas but a one way ticket back to Iowa" has ceased fighting.

The marine, Pfc. Robert A. Kueny, 21, son of Mr. and Mrs. William Kueny, Hornick, was killed in action November 29, three days after he wrote the letter. The war department said to was aiding the defense of the Changjin reservoir.

His last two letters were written from the foxholes of the reservoir territory. Because his hands nearly froze as he wrote, he told them he would have to cut the correspondence short.

Pfc. Kueny landed in Korea August 15 and was with the victorious allied forces which reached the Manchurian border as well as the United States marines who had to retreat before the Chinese communists.

He also saw action during the house-to-house fighting in Seoul, and, according to a previous letter to his parents, was trapped seven hours in a depot at Seoul while North Korean troops marched by.

Pfc. Kueny also escaped from an ambush south of Wonsan where his battalion was isolated for three days, and finally, according to his letter, was "cut to ribbons."

He was born April 20, 1929, at Danbury and was educated at Danbury and Hornick schools.

Survivors include his parents: six brothers, Roy and Paul of Salix and John, Leo, Dick and Vincent of Hornick; seven sisters, Mrs. Edward Jordan, of Jefferson. S. D., Mrs. S. O. Morison of Omaha, Darlene of Sioux City, Pauline Charlotte, Betty and Rita, all of Hornick and his grand mother, Mrs. Lena Price, Danbury.