The 35th Infantry Regiment Association salutes our fallen brother, PV2 Vernon Ike Whorley, RA13357645, who died in the service of his country on February 4th, 1951 in South Korea, Hill 431. The cause of death was listed as KIA. At the time of his death Vernon was 19 years of age. He was from Beckley, West Virginia. Vernon's Military Occupation Specialty was 4745-Light Weapons Infantryman.

The decorations earned by PV2 Vernon Ike Whorley include: the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Purple Heart, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Korea Service Medal, and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal.

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Private Whorley was a member of the 35th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. He was Killed in Action while fighting the enemy in South Korea on February 4, 1951. Private Whorley was awarded the Purple Heart, the Combat Infantryman's Badge, 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.

(From Bluefield Daily Telegraph, September 20, 1951)

The body of Pvt. Vernon Ike Whorley, 19, son of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Whorley, of near King Siding, killed in Korea last February 4, will arrive in Princeton this morning at 10:53 on Virginia Train No. 3 and will be removed to Memorial funeral directory.

Pvt. Whorley was born at Kegley and attended Matoaka high school prior to enlisting in the U.S. Army on August 7, 1950 with his twin brother Louis Mike Whorley, with whom he received four months basic training at Fort Knox, KY. At the time of his death he was a member of Company C, 35th Infantry Regiment, 25th Division.

In addition to his parents and twin brother, who is not serving in Korea, survivors include another brother, Gene Audry of Princeton; and seven sisters, Mrs. Mary Worrell, Kegley; Mrs. Josephine White, Pinnacle; Mrs. Ruth Fox and Mrs. Daisy Ryan of Xenia, OH.; Mrs. Dean Randall, Annapolis, MD.; and the Misses Geraldine and Cinderella Whorley of Princeton.

The body will remain at the Princeton funeral directory until Saturday afternoon, when it will be removed to the home of the parents. Rites will be held Sunday but other arrangements have not been made.

Vernon is buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Princeton, WV.

To my father's twin brother, the uncle I never knew. Your sacrifice is not forgotten. How different our lives might have been if you had made it home from Korea. Dad suffered multiple wounds from enemy fire six days before your death in the same war. I know in his heart he would have traded places with you thousand times over. A part of him died with you, I am told. You were close to his heart in the last days of his life at age 66. Not even my mother, his wife of over forty years, could fill the void that your sacrifice created. The great honor with which my father lived his life makes me ache at the thought that there was another man as great as him, and that he was the uncle I never had. Rest in peace and Rise in glory. Respectfully and remorsefully yours, (Marty Whorley)