Hamershy, Russell George
Army Private 1st class

Russell George Hamershy, age 20, from Schuylkill County Zerbe, Pennsylvania .

Parents: John Hamershy

Service era: Korea
Schools: Reilly Township High graduate

Date of death: Unknown
Death details: By mid-November 1950, U.S. and Allied forces had advanced to within approximately sixty miles of the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and China. On November 25, approximately 300,000 Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) “volunteers” suddenly and fiercely counterattacked after crossing the Yalu. The 2nd Infantry Division, located the farthest north of units at the Chongchon River, could not halt the CCF advance and was ordered to withdraw to defensive positions at Sunchon in the South Pyongan province of North Korea. As the division pulled back from Kunu-ri toward Sunchon, it conducted an intense rearguard action while fighting to break through well-defended roadblocks set up by CCF infiltrators. The withdrawal was not complete until December 1, and the 2nd Infantry Division suffered extremely heavy casualties in the process. Corporal Russell George Hamershy, who joined the U.S. Army from Pennsylvania, served with the Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He was taken captive on December 1, 1950, during his unit’s withdrawal to Sunchon, though the exact circumstances surrounding his capture are not known. Repatriated prisoners of war (POWs) later reported that CPL Hamershy died on or before May 31, 1951, while held captive at the Pyoktong POW Camp 5, North Korea, and was buried nearby. His remains were not among those returned from this area since the ceasefire, and he is still unaccounted-for. Today, Corporal Hamershy is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Pottsville Republican (1951)