Robert Calvin Nance, age 19, from Benton County Siloam Springs, Arkansas .
Parents: Bertha McGarrah
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Saturday, May 26, 1951
Death details: On February 5, 1951, Allied forces in Korea launched an offensive against North Korean and Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) north of Wonju. Republic of Korea units and the 38th Infantry Regiment and supporting artillery units, including the 15th and 503rd Field Artillery Battalions, and the 82nd Antiaircraft Artillery and Automatic Weapons Battalion, initially met light resistance on their drive to the north. On February 11, the CCF launched an aggressive counteroffensive that caused the Allies to withdraw back southward. However, the CCF had established a series of roadblocks on the road to the south, forcing the Allies to fight their way back to friendly lines. Corporal Robert Calvin Nance, who joined the U.S. Army from Arkansas, served with Battery D, 82nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was captured on February 13, 1951, at a CCF roadblock near Hoengsong, South Korea, and marched to a prison camp at Changsong, North Korea, near the Yalu River. He died of unknown causes on May 26, 1951, at the prison camp and was buried nearby; however, his remains were not identified among those returned to U.S. custody after the war. Corporal Nance 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, Times Record (1953)
