East Prairie Missouri

Raymond Allbritton, age 22, from Mississippi County East Prairie, Missouri .

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Thursday, July 27, 1950
Death details: In late July 1950, elements of the 27th Infantry Regiment, 8th Cavalry Regiment, and other units in the 25th Infantry and 1st Cavalry Divisions were tasked with blocking a North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) advance down the Poun-Hwanggan Highway, toward Kumch’on, roughly thirty-five miles west of Taegu. On July 23 and 24, U.S. units fought a series of engagements against the advancing NKPA forces. Heavy enemy artillery fire barrages forced the U.S. units back slowly until they began to withdraw to new positions on July 26. Over the next three days, the units withdrew and consolidated in Kumch’on, though many American soldiers died, were captured, or went missing during this action.
Corporal Raymond Luther Allbritton entered the U.S. Army from Missouri and served in the Medical Company of the 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. He was supporting the 2nd Battalion of the 5th Cavalry Regiment as it began to withdraw to Kumch’on, when he went missing on July 27, 1950. Further evidence suggests he died during this action and his body was not immediately recovered due to the NKPA advance. When U.S. and United Nations forces finally retook the area in late September 1950, CPL Allbritton’s remains could not be located, and further attempts to recover them have been unsuccessful. Today, Corporal Allbritton 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, Saint Louis Globe Democrat (1950)