Dunn, James Robert
Army Sergeant

James Robert Dunn, age 26, from Indiana, Knox county.

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. Sergeant First Class James Robert Dunn, who joined the U.S. Army from Indiana, was a member of Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. By midnight on November 1, the 8th Cavalry Regiment was forced to withdraw from the Unsan area. The 3rd Battalion was the last to withdraw, and was surrounded and cut off by the CCF during their movement. They formed a defensive perimeter, and withstood attacks for the next few days before survivors either broke out to avoid capture or surrendered. Sergeant First Class Dunn was lost during the moving battle. He was never reported as a prisoner of war, and he remains unaccounted for. Today, Sergeant First Class Dunn is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency