Jimenez, Victor Perales
Army Private 1st class

Victor Perales Jimenez from Texas, Bexar county.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Sunday, July 16, 1950
Death details: On the evening of July 15, 1950, the U.S. Army’s 19th Infantry Regiment held defensive positions along the south bank of the Kum River. As dusk approached, North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) tanks appeared on the opposite shore and began firing on the U.S. positions. Although U.S. troops repulsed the attacks that evening, the next morning the NKPA crossed the river and launched a major attack against the 19th Regiment. As the regiment began withdrawing south to Taejon, the North Koreans pushed deep into their defensive lines and set up a roadblock en route to Taejon. When retreating American convoys could not break through the roadblock, soldiers were forced to leave the road and attempt to make their way in small groups across the countryside. Of the 900 soldiers in the 19th Infantry when the Battle of Kum River started, only 434 made it to friendly lines. Corporal Victor Perales Jimenez entered the U.S. Army from Texas and served with Company C, 1st Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was captured on July 16, during the Battle of Kum River, while his unit was attempting to withdraw through and around an enemy roadblock outside Taejon. After his capture, he was moved between various holding camps in North Korea. During the winter of 1950-51, he arrived mortally ill at a cluster of three villages now known as the “Apex Camps,” where he died on or about April 16, 1951. His companions buried him a short distance away. U.S. investigators have not yet been able to recover service member remains from this remote area, and he is still unaccounted for. Today, Corporal Jimenez is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency