Hayes, Cornelius E.
Army Sergeant

Cornelius E. Hayes, age 20, from Baltimore County Baltimore, Maryland .

Spouse: Shirley JU. Hayes

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Friday, August 11, 1950
Death details: On August 10, 1950, members of the 3rd Battalion of the 9th Infantry Regiment combined with Battery C of the 15th Field Artillery Battalion as Task Force Bradley. The task force was directed to defend the city of P’ohang-dong, and Yonil Airfield, South Korea, from an impending attack by North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) forces. Late that day, Task Force Bradley moved along the main road toward P’ohang-dong and Yonil. Much of the task force reached Yonil shortly before midnight; however, during the early hours of August 11, NKPA fighters ambushed one company and four vehicles from Battery C were ambushed by NKPA fighters, preventing the ambushed men from reaching their destination.
Sergeant Cornelius Elvy Hayes joined the U.S. Army from Maryland and was a member of I Company, 3rd Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, which was assigned to Task Force Bradley. On August 11, 1950, members I Company, on a mission to rescue the members of Task Force Bradley, came under NKPA attack while on their way to aid their stranded comrades. It was during this fighting near P’ohang-dong that SGT Hayes went missing. He was never reported to be a prisoner of war, and he remains unaccounted-for following the incident. Today, Sergeant Hayes 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, Baltimore Sun (1954)