Balalong, Jose
Army Corporal

Jose Balalong, age 23, from Lihue, Hawaii.

Parents: Peter E. Arioli

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Thursday, November 2, 1950
Death details: During the last week of October 1950, Republic of Korea (ROK) Army forces under the control of the U.S. Eighth Army were advancing deep in North Korean territory, approaching the Yalu River on the Chinese-Korean border. Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) struck back in a surprise attack, engaging the ROK 1st and 6th Divisions near Unsan, some sixty miles north of Pyongyang. The U.S. 1st Cavalry Division, with the 8th Cavalry Regiment in the lead, was rushed forward to reinforce the ROK units in the Unsan area. On November 1, the regiment’s 1st Battalion took up positions north of Unsan, while the 2nd Battalion moved to guard the Nammyon River valley west of town, and the 3rd Battalion was placed in reserve at the valley’s southern end. Sergeant Jose Balalong, who joined the U.S. Army from Hawaii, was a member of Company C of the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, positioned to the northwest of Unsan. On November 1, 1950, Company C was part of a group of American units tasked with conducting combat operations against encroaching CCF in the Unsan area. The 8th Cavalry Regiment was ordered to withdraw after receiving intense rocket and mortar attacks and heavy infantry assaults. Company C was the last unit in the 1st Battalion to withdraw and was forced to fight its way through Unsan, which was by then thoroughly infiltrated with Chinese forces who unleashed intense small arms fire from rooftops and behind roadblocks. Sergeant Balalong went missing on November 2 during the course of this withdrawal from Unsan. His remains have not been recovered, and he could not be associated with any of the remains that North Korean officials returned to U.S. custody after the armistice. Today, Sergeant Balalong is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Honolulu Star Bulletin (1950)