Hugh Cornelius Killam, age 23, from Utah County Utah.
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 Hugh Cornelius Killam, who joined the U.S. Army from Utah, was a member of the Headquarters and Headquarters Service Company, 2nd Engineer Combat Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was taken prisoner of war on November 30, 1950, during his unit’s fighting withdrawal from Kunu-ri to Sanchon, North Korea. After his capture, he was marched to a holding camp in the Pukchin-Tarigol Valley where he died of malnutrition and illness on or before January 31, 1951. His remains were not recovered at the time, and he was not identified among remains returned to U.S. custody since the ceasefire. Today, Sergeant Killam is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency