Simmons, Albert Eugene
Army Sergeant

Albert Eugene Simmons, age 21, from McKean County Pennsylvania.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Tuesday, September 26, 1950
Death details: The 23rd Infantry Regiment landed at Pusan, South Korea, on August 5, 1950, and within one hour its 1st Battalion was dispatched to the front lines to reinforce the American and Republic of Korea (ROK) elements defending Pusan Harbor. The 1st Battalion established positions on high ground above the Naktong River, which was so shallow at the time that weary American survivors from earlier engagements began fording the river and walking behind American lines. Soon, however, the North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) began assembling ground forces near the river in order to ford it themselves and launch an offensive that would push American forces back to the sea. At dusk on August 31, the NKPA began this offensive along a fifteen-mile front, with the 1st Battalion taking the brunt of the NKPA’s efforts. By the early morning of September 1, Companies A, B, and C of the 1st Battalion were completely overrun, with many men from each of the units killed in action or taken prisoner amid the heavy fighting. Sergeant Albert Eugene Simmons entered the U.S. Army from Pennsylvania and served in B Company of the 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He was wounded severely in the foot during the North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) offensive but survived and was captured on August 31, 1950. Surviving prisoners who were interned with SGT Simmons stated he was part of a group of prisoners who were marched to the village of Namwon, where they rested in a barn while the enemy prepared to transfer them further north. On September 26, while still at Namwon, SGT Simmons left the barn to air out the wound in his foot, and survivors reported that within a few minutes of leaving the barn he was executed by NKPA guards. Two days later the prisoners were liberated by U.S. forces; however, they were unable to locate his remains at the time, and he was not identified among any remains returned to the U.S. following the armistice. Today, Sergeant Simmons 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