Shaw, Ralph Lee
Army Corporal

Ralph Lee Shaw from Grafton, West Virginia, Taylor county.

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 Ralph Lee Shaw joined the U.S. Army from West Virginia and was a member of Company L, 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. On November 2, 1950, Company L was in defensive positions with the 3rd Battalion near Unsan, when it was hit by an enemy attack and forced to withdraw. Sergeant Shaw was captured during the withdrawal, though specific details are unknown. At the end of the war, returned Americans prisoners of war (POW) reported that SGT Shaw died of an intestinal parasitic infection in POW Camp 5 at Pyoktong. No specific burial information was recorded and his remains have not been identified among those returned to U.S. custody after the ceasefire. Today, Sergeant Shaw is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, UP (1953)