Martin, John Allen
Army Corporal

John Allen Martin from Ridgeway, Texas, Hopkins 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. Sergeant John Allen Martin entered the U.S. Army from Texas and served with Company D, 1st Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was captured on July 16, during the Battle of Kum River, while his unit was withdrawing through and around enemy roadblocks outside Taejon. After being moved between various holding camps for a few months, he became a part of the “Tiger March” to the “Apex” prisoner of war (POW) camps, and on September 5 he was moved by train to Manpo, North Korea on the south bank of the Yalu River. Upon arriving at Manpo, SGT Martin was mortally ill and died on or about July 31, 1951, at a former Japanese police compound which was being used as the third of the “Apex” camp sites. Companions buried him a short distance away; however, his remains have not been recovered or identified following the conflict. Today, Sergeant Martin is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency