Baker, Walter Ray
Army Private 1st Class

Walter Ray Baker from Rockbridge, Illinois, Greene county.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Friday, January 12, 1951
Death details: On July 11, 1950, the U.S. Army’s 21st Infantry Regiment, which had arrived in Korea six days earlier, was placed in defensive positions near the town of Chochiwon, South Korea. The regiment was not at full strength and lacked artillery and anti-tank weapons. That day, they were attacked by North Korean forces and were forced to withdraw to avoid being surrounded, as well as to buy time until they could be reinforced and resupplied. Corporal Walter Ray Baker, who joined the U.S. Army from Illinois, served with I Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was captured by enemy forces on July 12, 1950, near Chochiwon and was forced to march north to a prison camp at Hanjang-ni, North Korea, where he died of malnutrition on January 12, 1951. Although he was buried near the camp, his remains were not identified among those returned to U.S. custody after the war. Today, Corporal Baker is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency