Smith, William Silas
Army Private 1st class

William Silas Smith, age 19, from Toombs County Vidalia, Georgia .

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Friday, September 1, 1950
Death details: On June 3, 2019, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Corporal William Silas Smith, missing from the Korean War. Corporal Smith joined the U.S. Army from Georgia and was a member of E Company, 2nd Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. In late August of 1950, his unit was positioned along the Naktong River near Yongsan, South Korea, as part of the Pusan Perimeter, a defensive line meant to slow the advance of the invading North Korean People’s Army. CPL Smith was reported missing in action after an enemy assault on his unit’s position on September 1, 1950, though the exact circumstances surrounding his loss are unknown. In September 1950, a set of unknown remains were recovered from northeast of Yongsan. These remains could not be identified and at the time and were eventually designated X-193 and buried as unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii. An extensive historical and anthropological investigation by DPAA eventually prompted the disinterment and re-examination of X-193 in October 2017. These remains were identified as those of CPL Smith. Corporal Smith 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