Spencer, Harold Gene
Army Private 1st Class

Harold Gene Spencer from New York, Erie county.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Thursday, June 11, 1953
Death details: Late at night on June 10, 1953, Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) launched an attack against an important American outpost known as “Outpost Harry,” which commanders had deemed a “major outpost…to be held at all costs.” Following hours of intense bombardment, Chinese infantry attacked the American trench lines in front of the outpost. The CCF succeeded in capturing the trenches but intense hand-to-hand combat kept the CCF from advancing farther. Attacks persisted through the next day and late into June 11. By the morning of June 12, the Chinese forces withdrew. Similar assaults continued on “Outpost Harry” through the next week. Corporal Harold Gene Spencer entered the U.S. Army from New York and served in Company C, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division. He went missing during the CCF attack on “Outpost Harry,” though specific details regarding his loss are unknown. No one saw him fall, and there is no evidence suggesting he was ever alive in enemy hands. Attempts to locate or recover his remains have been unsuccessful. Today, Corporal Spencer is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency