Cecil Arthur Coker from Chilton County Clanton, Alabama .
Parents: Roy N. Coker
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Thursday, November 30, 1950
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. Corporal Cecil Arthur Coker, who joined the U.S. Army from Alabama, served with Battery A, 38th Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was captured by enemy forces on November 30, 1950, as his unit, while making a fighting withdrawal south to Sunchon, was cut off and overrun by Chinese Communist soldiers. He was marched north to Camp 5 at Pyoktong, North Korea, where he died due to malnutrition on an unspecified date soon after arrival. He was buried nearby the campsite by his companions; however, his remains were not identified among those returned to U.S. custody after the war. Today, Corporal Coker 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, Union Banner (1950)
