Carrouth, Ralph Norman
Army Private 1st class

Ralph Norman Carrouth, age 20, from Cabarrus County Kannapolis, North Carolina .

Parents: Leslie Carrouth

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Saturday, July 29, 1950
Death details: On July 28, 1950, members of the 3rd Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, were in defensive positions near Kochang, South Korea, west of the Naktong River. They served as part of a defensive formation soon to be known as the Pusan Perimeter, meant to delay the North Korean People’s Army’s (NKPA) advance through South Korea long enough so that reinforcements could arrive at Pusan Harbor. That night, members of the 34th Infantry reported seeing a procession of enemy tanks and infantry assemble behind a roadblock west of Kochang. The next morning, this NKPA force attacked the 34th Infantry positions from two directions. Continuous enemy fire eventually forced the regiment to withdraw to the east; however, Company I was cut off by the NKPA. A counterattack was successful in rescuing all but one platoon from Company I, though many men were killed or went missing during these actions. Corporal Ralph Norman Carrouth entered the U.S. Army from North Carolina and was a member of I Company, 3rd Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was captured during the fighting near Kochang on July 29. Following his capture, CPL Carrouth was marched with other prisoners of war (POWs) toward Seoul and Pyongyang. After the war, returned prisoners reported that CPL Carrouth died of dysentery and malnutrition while still traveling north on October 9, and was buried on the side of the road south of Pyongyang. His remains were not recovered, and he was not identified among the remains returned to the U.S. following the war. Today, Corporal Carrouth 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, News and Reocrd (1950)