Pruitt, Oliver Lee
Army Private 1st class

Oliver Lee Pruitt, age 20, from New Mexico, Eddy county.

Service era: Korea
Military history: 35th Infantry Regiment

Date of death: Monday, November 27, 1950
Death details: On November 27, 1950, B Company of the U.S. Army’s 35th Infantry Regiment, an element of Task Force Dolvin/Wilson, was holding a hastily erected defensive position near the village of Tong-dong, North Korea, when Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) attacked the company’s perimeter from two sides. After heavy fighting, the Chinese successfully infiltrated the American positions, forcing a withdrawal under heavy mortar and artillery fire. The U.S. troops pulled back to another position a mile farther south. Corporal Oliver Lee Pruitt entered the U.S. Army from New Mexico and served with B Company, 1st Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. On November 27, CPL Pruitt was captured during the withdrawal from Tong-dong. As a prisoner of war (POW), he was eventually marched to Camp 5 on the south bank of the Yalu River, where he died on January 23, 1951. His remains were not identified among those returned to the U.S. following the ceasefire, and he is still unaccounted-for. Today, Corporal Pruitt is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, 35th Infantry Regiment Association, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency