Burlington Vermont

Ronald Rupert Fleming, age 19, from Chittenden County Burlington, Vermont .

Parents: Josephine V. Fleming

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. Private First Class Ronald Rupert Fleming, who joined the U.S. Army from Vermont, was a member of B Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He was captured by the enemy forces during the fighting withdrawal from Kunu-ri on November 30. Private First Class Fleming was marched to a holding village near the Pukchin-Tarigol Valley in North Korea, where he died of starvation, exposure, and pneumonia on January 26, 1951. His remains have not been recovered, and he was not identified among remains returned to U.S. custody after the end of the war. Today, Private First Class Fleming 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, Rutland Daily Herald (1951)