Williams, Donald Richard Jr.
Army Corporal
Donald Richard Jr. Williams, age 19, from Van Buren County Arkansas.
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 Donald Richard Williams Jr. joined the U.S. Army from Arkansas and was a member of Battery C, 15th Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was killed in action on August 11, 1950, during the NKPA ambush on his unit. CPL Williams’s body could not be recovered at the time of his loss. Later investigations of the P’ohang-dong area failed to locate or identify his remains. Today, Corporal Williams 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
