Cavagnaro, John Stanwood
Army Private 1st class

John Stanwood Cavagnaro, age 22, from California, Alameda county.

Parents: Grace M. Cavagnaro

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. Private First Class Patrick Thomas Cassatt, who joined the U.S. Army from Montana, was a member of Company E of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. On November 1, 1950, he was with members of Company E defending its sector near Unsan; his unit came under heavy enemy fire and he went missing during the chaotic fighting that followed. He was not listed as a prisoner of war, and his remains have not been recovered or identified following the ceasefire. Today, Private First Class Cassatt is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Oakland Tribune (1954)