Johnson, Vernon Glen
Army Corporal
Vernon Glen Johnson, age 33, from Jackson County Alma Center, Wisconsin .
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Friday, January 26, 1951
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 Vernon Glen Johnson, who joined the U.S. Army from Wisconsin, served with A Company, 2nd Engineer Combat Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was captured by enemy forces on December 1,1950, near Sonchu, North Korea, during his unit’s withdrawal from Kunu-ri. He was marched with a large group of prisoners to the Pukchin-Tarigol Valley, where he died of dysentery and pneumonia on January 26, 1951, while under the care of an Army doctor. Sergeant Johnson’s remains were not recovered. Sergeant Johnson is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Sheboygan Press (1951)