McGinithen, John Malhon
Army Corporal

John Malhon McGinithen, age 19, from Montgomery County Royersford, Pennsylvania .

Parents: Boyd McGinithen

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Wednesday, January 24, 1951
Death details: By mid-November 1950, U.S. and Allied forces had advanced to within approximately sixty miles of the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and China. On November 25, approximately 300,000 Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) “volunteers” suddenly and fiercely counterattacked after crossing the Yalu. The 2nd Infantry Division, located the farthest north of units at the Chongchon River, could not halt the CCF advance and was ordered to withdraw to defensive positions at Sunchon in the South Pyongan province of North Korea. As the division pulled back from Kunu-ri toward Sunchon, it conducted an intense rearguard action while fighting to break through well-defended roadblocks set up by CCF infiltrators. The withdrawal was not complete until December 1, and the 2nd Infantry Division suffered extremely heavy casualties in the process. Sergeant John Malhon McGinithen, who joined the U.S. Army from Pennsylvania, served with D Company, 2nd Engineer Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was captured by enemy forces on December 1, 1950, as his unit withdrew from Kunu-ri to Sunchon. He was marched with other prisoners to the Pukchin-Tarigol Valley in North Korea, where he died of pneumonia on January 24, 1951, while under the care of a fellow captured Army doctor. His remains have not been recovered. Sergeant McGinithen is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, The Mercury (1951)