Leonard Wesley Drummond, age 19, from Williamson County Thrall, Texas .
Parents: Samuel Wesley Drummond (both parents preceded him in death while he was overseas)
Service era: Korea
Schools: Graduated from high school in Thrall in 1948
Date of death: Thursday, November 30, 1950
Death details: By mid-November 1950, U.S. and Allied forces had advanced to within approximately sixty miles of the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and China. On November 25, approximately 300,000 Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) “volunteers” suddenly and fiercely counterattacked after crossing the Yalu. The 2nd Infantry Division, located the farthest north of units at the Chongchon River, could not halt the CCF advance and was ordered to withdraw to defensive positions at Sunchon in the South Pyongan province of North Korea. As the division pulled back from Kunu-ri toward Sunchon, it conducted an intense rearguard action while fighting to break through well-defended roadblocks set up by CCF infiltrators. The withdrawal was not complete until December 1, and the 2nd Infantry Division suffered extremely heavy casualties in the process. Corporal Leonard Wesley Drummond, who joined the U.S. Army from Texas, served with Battery B, 38th Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was wounded and captured by enemy forces on November 30, 1950, during his unit’s withdrawal from Kunu-ri south to Sunchon. He was marched north towards the Pukchin-Tarigol Valley, but died of his wounds before reaching the holding camp there and was buried by his companions along the route. His remains have not been located, and he was not identified among the remains returned to U.S. custody after the war. Today, Corporal Drummond 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, Taylor Daily Press (1954)
