Elliott, Shelby Freeman
Army Private
Shelby Freeman Elliott from Muscogee County Georgia.
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Friday, December 1, 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. Private First Class Shelby Freeman Elliot joined the U.S. Army from Georgia and was a member of Battery C, 38th Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. On December 1, 1950, he was killed in action against the CCF near Kunu-Ri, North Korea, as his unit made its fighting withdrawal toward Sunchon. His remains could not be recovered at the time of his loss, and he was not identified among remains returned to U.S. custody after the war. Today, Private First Class Elliot 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