Eau Claire Wisconsin

John Clell James, age 20, from Eau Claire County Eau Claire, Wisconsin .

Parents: Thelma R. Bower

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Saturday, January 27, 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. Corporal John Clell James, who joined the U.S. Army from Wisconsin, served with the Headquarters, Headquarters and Service Company, 2nd Engineer Combat Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was captured by enemy forces on November 30, 1950, as his unit withdrew from Kunu-ri to Sunchon, North Korea. He was marched with a large group of prisoners to the Pukchin-Tarigol Valley and died there of exhaustion and malnutrition on January 27, 1951. Corporal James is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Wisconsin State Journal (1951)