Barnett, Ivey Gene
Army Private
Ivey Gene Barnett from Arkansas, Ashley county.
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Thursday, November 2, 1950
Death details: During the last week of October 1950, Republic of Korea (ROK) Army forces under the control of the U.S. Eighth Army were advancing deep in North Korean territory, approaching the Yalu River on the Chinese-Korean border. Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) struck back in a surprise attack, engaging the ROK 1st and 6th Divisions near Unsan, some sixty miles north of Pyongyang. The U.S. 1st Cavalry Division, with the 8th Cavalry Regiment in the lead, was rushed forward to reinforce the ROK units in the Unsan area. On November 1, the regiment’s 1st Battalion took up positions north of Unsan, while the 2nd Battalion moved to guard the Nammyon River valley west of town, and the 3rd Battalion was placed in reserve at the valley’s southern end. Private First Class Ivey Gene Barnett, who joined the U.S. Army from Arkansas, was a member of Company E of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. On November 1, 1950, the 8th Cavalry Regiment, initially tasked with conducting combat operations against encroaching CCF in the Unsan area, was ordered to withdraw after receiving intense rocket and mortar attacks and heavy infantry assaults. Company E of the 8th was forced to fight its way through Unsan, by then thoroughly infiltrated with Chinese forces, who attacked the U.S. forces with small arms fire from rooftops and behind roadblocks. Private First Class Barnett was taken prisoner during the Regiment’s withdrawal from the Unsan area. Prisoners from this battle were marched northwest to Sambakkol, then to Camp 5 located at Pyoktong on the Yalu River. Repatriated prisoners reported in 1953 that PFC Barnett died in February or March 1951 of malnutrition at Pyoktong. His name does not appear on POW reports, most likely because he was first reported to be a POW by injured POWs returning from captivity in April 1953. His remains have not been recovered, and he could not be associated with any of the remains that North Korean officials returned to U.S. custody after the armistice. Today, Private First Class Barnett is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency