Joseph Kenneth Evans from Georgia, Bibb county.
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Tuesday, January 2, 1951
Death details: On July 11, 1950, the U.S. Army’s 21st Infantry Regiment, which had arrived in Korea six days earlier, was placed in defensive positions near the town of Chochiwon, South Korea. The regiment was not at full strength and lacked artillery and anti-tank weapons. That day, they were attacked by North Korean forces and were forced to withdraw to avoid being surrounded, as well as to buy time until they could be reinforced and resupplied. Sergeant First Class Joseph Kenneth Evans, who joined the U.S. Army from Georgia, served with I Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was captured by enemy forces on July 11, as his unit fought a series of delaying actions between Pyongt’aek and Chochiwon. He was forced to march north to the Apex prison camps near the Yalu River in North Korea. He died of exhaustion and pneumonia at the camp in Hanjang-ni on January 2, 1951, and was buried on the hillside behind the village. His remains were not identified among those returned to U.S. custody after the cease fire. Today, Sergeant First Class Evans is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency