Tag: Vanderburgh County Indiana

Donald Fredrick Magnus from Indiana, Vanderburgh county.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Thursday, January 4, 1951
Death details: On July 11, 1950, the U.S. Army’s 21st Infantry Regiment, which had arrived in Korea six days earlier, was placed in defensive positions near the town of Chochiwon, South Korea. The regiment was not at full strength and lacked artillery and anti-tank weapons. That day, they were attacked by North Korean forces and were forced to withdraw to avoid being surrounded, as well as to buy time until they could be reinforced and resupplied. Corporal Donald Frederick Magnus joined the U.S. Army from Indiana and was a member of Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was captured by North Korean forces during the fighting near Chochiwon on July 12. Corporal Magnus was marched to the “Apex Camps” in northern North Korea near the Yalu River, where he died of exhaustion and pneumonia on January 4, 1951. His remains have not been recovered or identified among remains returned to U.S. custody after the conflict’s ceasefire. Today, Corporal Magnus is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency