Hagerstown Maryland

Dailey Francis Dye from Hagerstown, Maryland.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Monday, November 30, 1953
Death details: On the evening of November 27, 1950, a huge Chinese force launched an attack against the U.S. and United Nations (UN) troops stationed in the Chosin Reservoir area in north-east North Korea. The resulting seventeen-day conflict became known as the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. After a fierce defense, U.S. and UN forces attempted to withdraw south from the Chosin Reservoir to the port of Hungnam. A single seventy-eight-mile roadway connecting the reservoir to Hungnam offered the only retreat route, and the withdrawing men faced significant enemy resistance as they traveled down it, attempting to avoid encirclement. After suffering heavy casualties, the U.S. and UN troops eventually broke through Chinese lines and reached Hungnam. Private First Class Dailey Francis Dye joined the U.S. Marine Corps from Maryland and was a member of the Ammunition Company, 1st Ordnance Battalion, 1st Marine Division. He went missing in action against enemy forces near Hagaru-ri, North Korea, as his unit made its fighting withdrawal from the Chosin Reservoir on November 30, 1950. Private First Class Dye was never reported to be a prisoner of war, and his remains were not identified among those returned to U.S. custody after the conflict’s ceasefire. Today, Private First Class Dye is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency