Donald James Ayen, age 27, from Dane County Madison, Wisconsin .
Parents: Elmer Ayen
Service era: Korea
Schools: East High graduate
Date of death: Wednesday, January 24, 1951
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. Master Sergeant Donald James Ayen, who joined the U.S. Army from Wisconsin, was a member of the Headquarters Battery, 82nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery (Automatic Weapons) Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was captured by the CCF during the fighting withdrawal from Kunu-ri on December 1, 1950. He was eventually marched to the Hojong Camp in North Korea, also known as the Death Valley Camp, where he died of starvation and pneumonia on January 24, 1951. His remains have not been recovered, and he was not identified among the remains returned to U.S. custody after the war. Today, Master Sergeant Ayen 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, The Capital Times (1953)