Forbes, Donald Wayne
Marines Private 1st class

Donald Wayne Forbes from Nevada, Iowa, Story county.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Wednesday, November 29, 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. Private First Class Donald Wayne Forbes joined the U.S. Marine Corps from Iowa and was a member of Company B, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division. He was killed in action against enemy forces on November 29, 1950, during the fighting at the Chosin Reservoir. The exact details surrounding PFC Forbes’s death are unknown, and his body was not recovered at the time of his loss. He was not identified among remains returned to U.S. custody after the conflict’s ceasefire, and he is still unaccounted-for. Today, Private First Class Forbes is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency