Vincenzo Dominick Romeo, age 21, from Easton, Pennsylvania, Northampton 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 Vincenzo Dominick Romeo joined the U.S. Army from Pennsylvania and was a member of Company K of the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. On November 2, 1950, Company K was near Unsan with the 3rd Battalion when the 8th Cavalry Regiment was cut off from its allies during a CCF surprise attack and despite fierce resistance, forced to withdraw. It was during this fighting that SGT Romeo was captured. He was eventually marched northwest to the temporary prisoner of war (POW) holding site at Sambakkol. At war’s end, returning POWs who survived their captivity and were 8th Cavalry Regiment comrades of SGT Romeo reported that he died as a result of malnutrition and dysentery in late December 1950. They buried him in Sambakkol, though his remains have not been recovered. Today, Sergeant Romeo is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Danville Morning News (1953)