Chapple, Donald Meredith
Marines Corporal

Donald Meredith Chapple from Long Island, New York, Nassau/Suffolk county.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Friday, December 1, 1950
Death details: On the evening of November 27, 1950, a huge Chinese force launched an attack against the U.S. and United Nations (UN) troops stationed in the Chosin Reservoir area in north-east North Korea. The resulting seventeen-day conflict became known as the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. After a fierce defense, U.S. and UN forces attempted to withdraw south from the Chosin Reservoir to the port of Hungnam. A single seventy-eight-mile roadway connecting the reservoir to Hungnam offered the only retreat route, and the withdrawing men faced significant enemy resistance as they traveled down it, attempting to avoid encirclement. After suffering heavy casualties, the U.S. and UN troops eventually broke through Chinese lines and reached Hungnam. Corporal Donald Meredith Chapple joined the U.S. Marine Corps from New York and was a member of the Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division. He was killed in action against enemy forces during his unit’s withdrawal from the Chosin Reservoir on December 1, 1950. The exact details surrounding Cpl Chapple’s loss are unknown, and he was not identified among remains returned to U.S. custody after the conflict’s ceasefire. Today, Corporal Chapple is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency