Jack Judson Cunningham, age 21, from Los Angeles County Bell Gardens, California .
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Unknown
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 Jack Judson Cunningham, who joined the U.S. Army from California, served with Headquarters, Headquarters and Service Company, 2nd Engineer Combat Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was captured by enemy forces on November 30, 1950, during his unit’s withdrawal from Kunu-ri to Sunchon. He was then marched with a large group of other prisoners to the Pukchin-Tarigol Valley. He suffered from frost bite, and according to a fellow prisoner, a Chinese doctor attempted to operate on him at a primitive field hospital near Pukchin-Tarigol and Sergeant Cunningham died soon after. His surviving companions disagree on the exact date of his death. His remains have not been recovered. Today, Sergeant Cunningham is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Los Angeles Times (1951)
