Bowman, Allen Milford
Marines Corporal

Allen Milford Bowman from Indiana.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Tuesday, November 28, 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 Allen Milford Bowman, who joined the U.S. Marine Corps from Indiana, served with Company B, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division. He was killed during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir on November 28, 1950, as his unit attempted to dislodge the CCF from the top of Hill 1240. His body was removed from the hill and buried in a temporary cemetery the Marines had established near the town of Yudam-ni; however, he was not identified among the remains returned to the U.S. following the war, and is still unaccounted for. Today, Corporal Bowman is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency