Pike county Alabama

Madison L. Davis, age 24, from Goshen, Alabama, Pike county.

Parents: T. H. Davis

Service era: Korea
Military history: Veteran of World War I and re-enlisted in 1947.

Date of death: Wednesday, April 25, 1951
Death details: On April 25, 1951, elements of the 24th Infantry Division, including the 21st Infantry Regiment and the 5th Regimental Combat Team, which was attached to the division at the time, were dug into positions north of Seoul, South Korea, where massive Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) had regrouped after their previous attempts to penetrate the valley areas east of Seoul. The CCF launched a renewed offensive against these positions, and despite fierce resistance, could not be stopped. Full enemy divisions were committed in succession, passing around or through their own lines to engage severely outnumbered friendly forces. For several miles, a withdrawal by stages unfolded. Artillery and tanks covered movement after movement, using slight rises in terrain to their full defensive value. The U.S. units suffered heavy casualties and had many men captured during these successive rear guard actions. Master Sergeant Madison Lamar Davis entered the U.S. Army from Alabama and was a member of Battery C, 555th Field Artillery Battalion, 5th Infantry Regimental Combat Team, 24th Infantry Division. He went missing on April 25, as members of the 5th RCT were providing rear guard cover for this withdrawal action northwest of the town of Kapyong. Circumstances surrounding his loss, however, are unknown. He was never reported as a prisoner of war, and he was not identified among the remains returned to the U.S. since the ceasefire. Today, Master Sergeant Davis is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Montgomery Advertiser (1954)