Mitchell, Robert Elijah
Army Private 1st class

Robert Elijah Mitchell, age 19, from Shelby County Tennessee.

Parents: F. B. Mitchell

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Wednesday, September 6, 1950
Death details: On June 28, 2016, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Private First Class Robert Elijah Mitchell, missing from the Korean War. PFC Mitchell joined the U.S. Army from Arizona and was a member of Company F, 2nd Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. On September 6, 1950, he went missing in action against North Korean forces that had penetrated the Pusan Perimeter near near Am-sin, South Kores. PFC Mitchell’s remains were recovered on July 10, 1952, near Hwasong-dong, South Korea; however, they could not be identified at the time, and were buried as unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Advances in forensic techniques and family requests eventually prompted the re-analysis and identification of PFC Mitchell’s remains. Private First Class Mitchell 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, The Commercial Appeal (1951)