Nelson, Forest Archie
Marines Captain

Forest Archie Nelson, age 25, from South Dakota, Beadle county.

Service era: Korea
Military history: Purple Heart

Date of death: Wednesday, August 6, 1952

Death details: Captain Forest Archie Nelson, who joined the U.S. Marine Corps from South Dakota, served with Marine Attack Squadron 212, Marine Air Group 12. On August 6, 1952, he departed Pyongtaek Air Base in an AU-1 Corsair (bureau number 129328) in a flight of three on a close air support mission to Kwijon-ni.

After several passes over the target, his aircraft was hit by enemy fire and he made a forced landing in a rice paddy. He was seen by other pilots to fold up his parachute and walk towards a hill south of the rice paddy. Several patrols of enemy soldiers then converged on him and the other pilots watching lost sight of him. He was not reported to be a prisoner of war, and his remains were not identified among those returned to U.S. custody after the ceasefire. Today, Captain Nelson is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.    

Cemetery: Memorialized in Black Hills National

Source: National Archives, grave marker, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency