Silva, Enfre
Army Private 1st class

Enfre Silva, age 19, from Los Angeles County Los Angeles, California .

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Thursday, July 20, 1950
Death details: On July 20, 1950, the 3rd Battalion of the U.S. 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, was holding a defensive line in South Korea overlooking the Taejon Airport, northeast of the city. When enemy tanks broke through the line near the airport, U.S. troops were ordered to fall back through Taejon. The 3rd Battalion was ordered to lead the convoy out of Taejon, but ran into a series of collapsed structures and roadblocks that broke up the column. U.S. forces were unable to break through these roadblocks, and to avoid capture soldiers moved off-road and began filtering through the countryside in small groups. Corporal Enfre Silva, who joined the U.S. Army from California, was a member of the Service Company, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action on July 20 as his unit encountered a NKPA roadblock on the way to Kumsan during the withdrawal from Taejon. The circumstances surrounding his loss are unknown; he was not seen to fall in battle and he was never reported as a prisoner of war. Once the territory where he went missing was reclaimed by friendly forces, extensive searches were conducted for his remains, but were unsuccessful. Today, Corporal Silva is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. His name is also inscribed on the Korean War Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC, which was updated in 2022 to include the names of the fallen.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Los Angelest Times (1950)