Thayer, George Lytle
Army Sergeant
George Lytle Thayer, age 22, from Crawford County Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania .
Parents: Glenn C. Thayer
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Monday, April 23, 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 First Class George Lytle Thayer, who joined the U.S. Army from Pennsylvania, served with D Company, 2nd Engineer Combat Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was captured by enemy forces on December 1, 1950, as his unit withdrew from Kunu-ri to Sunchon. He and a large group of fellow prisoners were marched north to Camp 5 at Pyoktong, North Korea. Following the end of hostilities, surviving prisoners reported that he died there of malnutrition on April 23, 1951. He was buried at Camp 5, but his remains have not been among those returned to U.S. custody. Sergeant First Class Thayer is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Pittsburgh Press (1954)