Lyman Henry Arionus, age 28, from Beltrami County Blackduck, Minnesota .
Parents: Florence Blair
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Saturday, March 31, 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. Corporal Lyman Henry Arionus, who joined the U.S. Army from Minnesota, served with the Headquarters, Headquarters and Service Company, 2nd Engineer Combat Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was captured by enemy forces on November 30, 1950, as his unit was fighting through a heavily defended roadblock during their withdrawal to Sunchon. Corporal Arionus was first marched to the Pukchin-Tarigol Valley Camp with a large group of POWs. His group then arrived at Camp 5 in Pyokyong in late January, 1951, and died there of malnutrition and pneumonia on an unrecorded date in May. His remains have not been recovered. Corporal Arionus is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Minneapolis Star Tribune (1953)