Richard Darrel Coker, age 18, from Missouri, Barry county.
Parents: Ethel Angeline Coker
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. Corporal Richard Darrel Coker, who joined the U.S. Army from Missouri, was a member of Company C of the 8th Engineer Combat Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division. On November 1, 1950, the 8th Engineer Battalion was assigned to the 8th Cavalry Regiment, positioned near Unsan. The 8th Cavalry Regiment was cut off from its allies during a CCF surprise attack on November 1. Despite fierce resistance, some of the units were overrun by nightfall, forcing a withdrawal. The retreating men passed through the town of Unsan, which was by then thoroughly infiltrated with Chinese, who rained down small arms fire on them from rooftops and from behind roadblocks. Corporal Coker was lost at some point during the action on November 1. A surviving witness from Company C reported seeing CPL Coker sustain a gunshot wound, but could not confirm that he died. The corporal does not appear in Chinese prisoner of war records, and his remains were not located in post-war searches of the area. Additionally, he could not be associated with any of the remains that the North Koreans returned to U.S. custody as a condition of ceasefire. Today, Corporal Coker is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Stillwater New Press (1954)
