Anderson, Roy Harris Jr.
Army Private 1st class
Roy Harris Jr. Anderson, age 19, from Scott County Windom, Minnesota .
Parents: Mary G. Anderson
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Saturday, September 2, 1950
Death details: On August 31, 1950, the North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) engaged in a large-scale offensive against the U.S. defensive line in South Korea. The defensive position, known as the Pusan Perimeter, was intended to prevent NKPA forces from reaching the harbor in Pusan, South Korea, where American reinforcements would arrive. The late-August offensive allowed the NKPA to penetrate deep into allied territory. On September 3, members of the 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, organized near Yongsan, South Korea and counterattacked the NKPA forces. By September 5, with the help of air and artillery support, the U.S. counteroffensive succeeded in pushing the enemy back across the Naktong River. Corporal Roy Harris Anderson Jr., who joined the U.S. Army from Minnesota, was a member of E Company of the 2nd Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He was among men stationed on the Pusan Perimeter who took part in the September 3 counterattack. Corporal Anderson went missing in action at some point during the fighting in early September. He was never seen as a prisoner of war, and searches of the Yongsan area were unsuccessful in locating the corporal’s remains. Today, Corporal Anderson 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, Str Tribune (1950)