Miller, Joseph Edward
Army Private 1st class

Joseph Edward Miller, age 21, from Cabarrus County Kannapolis, North Carolina .

Parents: R. C. Miller Sr.

Service era: Korea
Schools: Odell High and Cannon High

Date of death: Monday, February 12, 1951
Death details: On February 5, 1951, Allied forces in Korea launched an offensive against North Korean and Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) north of Wonju. Republic of Korea units and the 38th Infantry Regiment and supporting artillery units, including the 15th and 503rd Field Artillery Battalions, and the 82nd Antiaircraft Artillery and Automatic Weapons Battalion, initially met light resistance on their drive to the north. On February 11, the CCF launched an aggressive counteroffensive that caused the Allies to withdraw back southward. However, the CCF had established a series of roadblocks on the road to the south, forcing the Allies to fight their way back to friendly lines. Corporal Joseph Edward Miller entered the U.S. Army from North Carolina and was a member of K Company, 3rd Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He was taken as a prisoner of war (POW) by enemy forces during the Regiment’s February 1951 withdrawal and placed among a group of prisoners who were transferred north toward the Suan Bean POW camp. However, CPL Miller never reached the camp, and was reportedly shot by an enemy guard while the group was near a cluster of villages just north of the current border between North and South Korea. U.S. investigators have not yet been able to access the area to search for CPL Miller’s burial site, and he has not been associated with any of the remains later returned to U.S. custody. Today, Corporal Miller is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the PacificHis 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, Statesville Record and Landmark (1954)