Crotty, Richard Edward
Army Corporal

Richard Edward Crotty, age 22, from Peoria County Peoria, Illinois .

Parents: Mabel E. Crotty

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Friday, September 1, 1950
Death details: In late July of 1950, reinforcements from the U.S. Army’s 2nd Infantry Division arrived in Pusan, South Korea, and within hours of their arrival were already being moved to the front lines along the Pusan Perimeter to help repel the invading North Korean People’s Army (NKPA). Troops were positioned along the eastern bank of the Naktong River, which was shallow enough to be crossed on foot in several places. On August 31, members of the 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, were defending the eastern shore of the Naktong, near the town of Yongsan, when at nightfall the NKPA advanced over the Naktong and began an offensive against American positions along the river. Heavy fighting broke out, and many of the 9th Infantry Regiment’s positions were overrun. Sergeant Richard Edward Crotty, who joined the U.S. Army from Illinois, was a member of E Company of the 2nd Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. E Company was stationed two miles east of the Naktong at the time of the August 31 NKPA assault, and SGT Crotty was lost sometime during the fighting, though exact details regarding his disappearance are unknown. He was never seen as a prisoner of war, and attempts to locate his remains following the end of hostilities were unsuccessful. Today, Sergeant Crotty is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Streator Times (1950)