Gutierrez, Jose Roberto
Army Private 1st class

Jose R. Gutierrez from Texas, Webb county.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Saturday, December 2, 1950

Death details: 

On the evening of November 27, 1950, Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) launched a massive attack against the U.S. and United Nations troops stationed in the Chosin Reservoir area in northeast North Korea, resulting in a seventeen-day conflict that became known as the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. At the time of the initial CCF attack, members the U.S. Army’s 31st and 32nd Infantry Regiments were defending the area north of Sinhung-ni, on the east side of the reservoir. The defenders were overwhelmed by the numerically superior CCF, and on December 1, were forced to withdraw to friendly lines at Hagaru-ri. Chinese roadblocks from Sinhung-ni to Hagaru-ri along with the constant enemy fire from the surrounding high ground, made the withdrawal route extremely dangerous. Eventually, the column was broken into separate segments, which the CCF attacked individually. Many men were lost or captured during the moving battle, with survivors reaching friendly lines in Hagaru-ri on December 2 and 3.

Private First Class Jose Roberto Gutierrez, who joined the U.S. Army from Texas, served with Company L, 3rd Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. He was killed in action on December 2, 1950, as his unit made a fighting withdrawal south from the Chosin Reservoir to Hamhung. Due to the chaos on the battlefield, PFC Gutierrez’s body was not immediately recovered, and U.S. military forces never again controlled the area where he fell. His remains were not identified among those returned to U.S. custody after the ceasefire. Today, Private First Class Gutierrez is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cememtery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency