Sevier County Arkansas

Tracy R. Roden, age 42, from Sevier County Gillham, Arkansas .

Parents: Arch C. Roden

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Friday, August 11, 1950
Death details: On August 10, 1950, members of the 3rd Battalion of the 9th Infantry Regiment combined with Battery C of the 15th Field Artillery Battalion as Task Force Bradley. The task force was directed to defend the city of P’ohang-dong, and Yonil Airfield, South Korea, from an impending attack by North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) forces. Late that day, Task Force Bradley moved along the main road toward P’ohang-dong and Yonil. Much of the task force reached Yonil shortly before midnight; however, during the early hours of August 11, NKPA fighters ambushed one company and four vehicles from Battery C were ambushed by NKPA fighters, preventing the ambushed men from reaching their destination.
Corporal Tracy Rosco Roden, who joined the U.S. Army from Arkansas, served with Battery C of the 15th Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was captured by enemy forces on August 11, 1950, as his unit, attached to Task Force Bradley, was ambushed near Angang-ni. He was marched first to Seoul, and from there began a forced march to P’yöngyang, however he died en route at the town of Suan, North Korea. His place of burial is unknown, and his remains have not been identified among those returned to U.S. custody. Today, Corporal Roden 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, Times Record (1953)