Purkapile, Leonard Virgil
Army Private 1st class

Leonard Virgil Purkapile, age 26, from Boscobel, Wisconsin, Grant county.

Service era: Korea
Military history: 35th Infantry Regiment

Date of death: Tuesday, November 28, 1950
Death details: On February 16, 2018, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Corporal Leonard Virgil Purkapile, missing from the Korean War. Corporal Purkapile joined the U.S. Army from Wisconsin and was a member of E Company, 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. On November 28, 1950, he went missing in action near Unsan, North Korea, as his unit made its withdrawal toward Yongbyon. He was killed during this action, although the circumstances surrounding his loss were unknown at the time, and his remains were not recovered. In 1993, the North Korean government returned a set of remains allegedly recovered from Okchang-ri, near CPL Purkapile’s loss location. DPAA analysts used advances in forensic techniques along with circumstantial evidence, and eventually identified CPL Purkapile from these remains. Corporal Purkapile is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. His name is also inscribed on the Korean War Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC, which was updated in 2022 to include the names of the fallen.
Cemetery: Hillside, Lancaster

Source: National Archives, 35th Infantry Regiment Association