Tag: Greenville South Carolina

James Harold Gilbert, age 21, from Greenville County Greenville, South Carolina .

Parents: Lila P. Gilbert

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. Private James Harold Gilbert, who joined the U.S. Army from South Carolina, was a member of I Company, 3rd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He was killed in action during the fighting withdrawal from Kunu-ri on November 30. His remains were not recovered, and he was not identified among remains returned to U.S. custody after the war. Today, Private Gilbert 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, The State (1951)