Ybarra, Mike Joseph
Army Sergeant

Mike J. Ybarra from Illinois, Rock Island county.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Saturday, November 25, 1950
Death details:  By mid-November 1950, U.S. and allied forces had advanced within sixty miles of the Yalu River, which formed a border between North Korea and China. On November 25, approximately 300,000 Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) “volunteers” launched a sudden and fierce counteroffensive after crossing the Yalu. The 2nd Infantry Division, located the farthest north of those 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 heavy casualty losses in the process.

Sergeant First Class Mike Joseph Ybarra, who entered the U.S. Army from Illinois, served in Company G, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He went missing in action on November 25, 1950, as the 23rd Regiment faced heavy fighting during the early phases of its withdrawal to Sunchon. Specific details regarding SFC Ybarra’s loss are unknown. He was never reported as a prisoner of war, and his remains were not recovered or identified following the battle. Today, Sergeant First Class Ybarra is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency