Antonio, Vittorio Michele
Army Private 1st class

Vittorio Michele Antonio, age 22, from Kent County Rhode Island.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Thursday, November 30, 1950
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. Corporal Vittorio Michele Antonio entered the U.S. Army from Rhode Island and served in F Company, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He was wounded by shell fragments during the action on November 30, 1950. He was not seen again after departing his post to get treatment at an aid station and his name did not appear on hospital records. There was also no evidence suggesting he was taken as a prisoner of war. His remains were not recovered and he was not identified among the remains returned to the U.S. following the armistice. Today, Corporal Antonio is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. His name is also inscribed on the Korean War Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC, which was updated in 2022 to include the names of the fallen.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Associated Press (1954)