Bakie, Donald Linwood
Army Private 1st class

Donald Linwood Bakie, age 17, from Baltimore, Maryland, Baltimore county.

Parents: Evelyn M. Spicer

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Thursday, November 2, 1950
Death details: During the last week of October 1950, Republic of Korea (ROK) Army forces under the control of the U.S. Eighth Army were advancing deep in North Korean territory, approaching the Yalu River on the Chinese-Korean border. Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) struck back in a surprise attack, engaging the ROK 1st and 6th Divisions near Unsan, some sixty miles north of Pyongyang. The U.S. 1st Cavalry Division, with the 8th Cavalry Regiment in the lead, was rushed forward to reinforce the ROK units in the Unsan area. On November 1, the regiment’s 1st Battalion took up positions north of Unsan, while the 2nd Battalion moved to guard the Nammyon River valley west of town, and the 3rd Battalion was placed in reserve at the valley’s southern end. Corporal Donald L. Bakie, who joined the U.S. Army from Maryland, was a member of Company L, 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. Throughout the day and into the late evening on November 1, Chinese forces conducted continued mortar, rocket, and heavy artillery attacks against the 8th Cavalry Regiment, in order to infiltrate lines and move into Unsan. In the early morning hours of November 2, the attack extended into the 3rd Battalion’s sector just south of Unsan and Corporal Bakie was reportedly captured during the course of this fighting. Prisoners from this battle were marched north to prison camps on the North Korean side of the Yalu River. Prisoners of war who survived captivity reported that CPL Bakie died at or near Pyoktong, the site of one of the main camps, due to malnutrition. Attempts to recover his remains since the close of war have been unsuccessful. Today, Corporal Bakie is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Baltimore Evening Sun (1950)