O’Brien, Edward James
Army Corporal

Edward James O’Brien, age 29, from Ramsey County Saint Paul, Minnesota .

Parents: Edward and Caroline O’Brien

Service era: Korea
Military history: 35th Infantry Regiment

Date of death: Tuesday, November 28, 1950
Death details: On June 5, 2008, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC, now DPAA) identified the remains of Sergeant Edward James O’Brien, missing from the Korean War. Sergeant O’Brien entered the U.S. Army from Nebraska and served in F Company, 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. In late November 1950, he fought in the Battle of the Chongchon River and was last seen when enemy forces overran his company’s position south of Unsan, North Korea. He was killed in action on or before November 28, though the exact circumstances of his loss remain unknown. In 1998, a joint U.S. and North Korean investigative team excavated a site near where SGT O’Brien was last seen and recovered human remains there. U.S. analysts were eventually able to identify SGT O’Brien from among these remains. Sergeant O’Brien is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. His name is also inscribed on the Korean War Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC, which was updated in 2022 to include the names of the fallen.
Cemetery: Fort Snelling National

Source: 35th Infantry Regiment Association, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Star Tribune (1951)