Purcell, Joseph Stanley
Army Corporal

Joseph Stanley Purcell, age 19, from Mahanoy Plane, Pennsylvania, Schuylkill county.

Parents: Stanley Purcell

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 Joseph Stanley Purcell joined the U.S. Army from Pennsylvania and was a member of Company C, 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. On November 2, 1950, Company C was in defensive positions near Unsan when it was hit by a severe enemy attack and forced to withdraw. It was during this fighting withdrawal that SGT Purcell went missing, though specific details regarding his loss are unknown. He was never reported as a prisoner of war, and his remains were not identified among those returned to the U.S. following the war. Today, Sergeant Purcell is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Pottsville Republican and Herald (1954)