Murphy, James David
Army Corporal

James David Murphy from Oregon, Coos county.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Monday, November 20, 1950
Death details: 

On November 20, 1950, the Intelligence and Reconnaissance Platoon of the 7th Cavalry Regiment and a small force from Company B of the 8th Engineers Combat Battalion were sent on a mission to investigate the positions of Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) that had consolidated on the north bank of the Ch’ongch’on River on the border between China and North Korea. The patrol met a larger enemy force near the village of Pyongdong, and a heavy firefight ensued. U.S. forces were eventually compelled to fall back to friendly lines.

Sergeant James David Murphy joined the U.S. Army from Oregon and was a member of Company B, 8th Engineers Combat Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division. He was captured by the CCF during the November 20 engagement near Pyongdong. Sergeant Murphy was held locally before being marched to a holding point at the Pukchin-Tarigol Valley in North Korea, where he died of pneumonia and malnutrition on January 12, 1951. U.S. search teams have never been permitted to investigate the site, and none of the remains returned to U.S. custody after the conflict’s ceasefire could be associated with SGT Murphy. Today, Sergeant Murphy is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency