Roberto Garcia, age 22, from Hidalgo County Texas.
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Thursday, November 30, 1950
Death details: By mid-November 1950, U.S. and Allied forces had advanced to within approximately sixty miles of the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and China. On November 25, approximately 300,000 Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) “volunteers” suddenly and fiercely counterattacked after crossing the Yalu. The 2nd Infantry Division, located the farthest north of units at the Chongchon River, could not halt the CCF advance and was ordered to withdraw to defensive positions at Sunchon in the South Pyongan province of North Korea. As the division pulled back from Kunu-ri toward Sunchon, it conducted an intense rearguard action while fighting to break through well-defended roadblocks set up by CCF infiltrators. The withdrawal was not complete until December 1, and the 2nd Infantry Division suffered extremely heavy casualties in the process. Sergeant Roberto Garcia entered the U.S. Army from Texas and served in B Company, 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. On November 30, 1950, during the 2nd Division’s withdrawal to Sunchon, SGT Garcia and B Company were positioned on Hill 201 when they were attacked by advancing CCF. A counterattack from Company A drove out the Chinese forces, however, SGT Garcia went missing during the fighting. Battle conditions prevented searches for him at the time. He was never reported as a prisoner of war, and his remains were not identified among those recovered following the war. Today, Sergeant Garcia 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.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency