Clay County Illinois

Dale Eugene Brown from Clay County Illinois.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Unknown
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 Dale Eugene Brown, who joined the U.S. Army from Illinois, served with the Headquarters Battery, 38th Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was captured by enemy forces on or about November 30, 1950, as his unit was making a fighting withdrawal southward to Sunchon, North Korea, and was cut off and overrun by the enemy. CPL Brown was marched to Camp 5 at Pyoktong, North Korea, where he died on an unspecified date in June 1950. His companions buried him at the camp; however, his remains were not identified among those returned to U.S. custody after the war. Today, Corporal Brown 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