Shunney, James Patrick
Army Sergeant

James Patrick Shunney, age 19, from Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Providence county.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Thursday, November 2, 1950
Death details: On March 2, 2016, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Sergeant First Class James Patrick Shunney, missing from the Korean War. Sergeant First Class Shunney entered the U.S. Army from Rhode Island and served with Company I, 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. On November 2, 1950, he was with his company providing reinforcement to the 3rd Battalion near Unsan, North Korea, when elements of the Chinese Communist Forces struck the 1st Cavalry Division’s lines, collapsing the perimeter and forcing a withdrawal. SFC Shunney did not survive this combat, though the exact details surrounding his loss are unknown and his remains were not recovered at the time. In September and October 2000, joint U.S./North Korean investigative teams excavated a mass grave near Unsan and recovered human remains, and U.S. analysts eventually identified SFC Shunney from among these remains.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Newport Daily News (1954)