Gilmore, John Robert
Army Corporal

John Robert Gilmore, age 20, from Baltimore County Maryland.

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 John Robert Gilmore, who joined the U.S. Army from Maryland, served with Battery C, 503rd Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was killed in action on November 30, 1950, at a CCF roadblock near Kunu-ri, as his unit made a fighting withdrawal from Kunu-ri south to Sunchon. Although his death was witnessed by members of his unit, the confusion of the battlefield prevented the immediate recovery of his body, and his remains were not identified among those later returned to U.S. custody by North Korea. Today, Sergeant Gilmore 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