Louis DiCamillo

A memory stone for PFC Louis DiCamillo, whose remains were never recovered from North Korea

NPS Photo

Quick Facts

Significance:

Private First Class in the 32nd Infantry Regiment who was killed at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in December 1950. His remains were not recovered, and he has a memory stone in his honor in Gettysburg National Cemetery.

Place of Birth:

Chester, Delaware County, Pennsylvania

Date of Birth:

August 11, 1933

Place of Death:

Near the Chosin Reservoir, North Korea

Date of Death:

December 2, 1950 (presumed)

Place of Burial:

Unknown

Cemetery Name:

Memory Stone located in Gettysburg National Cemetery

Section 3, Row 4, Grave 36 (Memory Stone)

Private First Class Louis DiCamillo was born in Chester, PA. He was the second oldest of seven children, with four brothers and two younger sisters. His father James was an immigrant from Italy who worked as a laborer in a foundry. His mother’s name was Victoria.

Louis left Chester High School to enlist in the army in 1949. He initially received training at Fort Knox, KY, and was deployed to Japan as part of the occupation force.

Louis went to Korea in 1950 as part of the United States and United Nations force fighting the communist offensive. In Korea he served in the Heavy Mortar Company, 32nd U.S. Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division.

With the gains made by UN forces in the fall of that year, he found himself in North Korea with the X Corps, part of General Douglas MacArthur’s offensive past the 38th parallel toward the Yalu River—the boundary between Korea and China.

Louis’s last letter home arrived in on November 15, 1950, when he and his regiment were near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. According to Louis, the Korean winter was frigid, and the snow was up to their knees.

In November 1950, Chinese forces poured into North Korea, launching a massive counter offensive that caught US and UN forces unaware. US Army Soldiers and Marines near the Chosin Reservoir were surrounded and had to fight their way free in what became one of the most harrowing chapters in American military history.

DiCamillo’s 32nd Regiment was east of the reservoir, and under the leadership of Col. Allan D. Maclean. The 1st battalion of the 32nd was part of a grouping known as Regimental Combat Team 31 (RCT-31). Soon to be known as Task Force Faith for Lt. Col. Don Faith, who assumed command of the force during the battle at Chosin. On the night of Nov 27, three regiments of the Chinese 80th division attacked RCT-31. Further attacks soon split the grouping into three elements.

Despite heavy losses and being surrounded, General Ned Almond ordered RCT-31 to continue its attack. Almond handed out silver stars to several of the commanders in RCT-31, including Faith, who threw his on the ground in disgust.

By Dec 1, RCT-31 was surrounded and tried to fight its way back to the 1st Marine Division to the south. National Park Service historian Roy Appleman, who served in WWII and in Korea with the X Corps, wrote this of the experience of RCT-31 east of Chosin:

"An attempt to describe accurately the scene inside the perimeter of Task Force Faith on the morning of 1 December 1950 runs the risk of appearing macabre. Very probable, however, even Hollywood will not be able to duplicate it in stark tragedy and horror....

By dawn on 1 December members of the Task Force had been under attack for 80 hours in sub-zero weather. None had slept much. None had washed or shaved; none had eaten more than a bare minimum. Due to the season of the year, darkness covered about 16 hours of each 24-hour period - and during the hours of the darkness the enemy exploited his terror weapons such as bugles, whistles, flares, burp-guns, and infiltration tactics. The ground was frozen so solidly as to hamper digging, so rifleman and weapons crews occupied very shallow trenches. The dead, concentrated in central collecting points, had to be used as a source for all supplies including clothing, weapons, and ammunition. Everyone seemed to be wounded in one fashion or another and to varying degrees of severity. Frozen feet and hands were common. The wounded who were unable to move about froze to death. Trucks and jeeps and trailers were ransacked for ammunition and any kind of fabric that would serve for bandages or clothing. But the factors that discouraged and disheartened most were these: Everyone could see that the weather was growing worse, which meant the loss of air support and aerial resupply; that relief from Hagaru-ri in any force less than regimental size could never reach us; that another night of determined attacks would surely overrun the position."

Faith led a convoy trying to break free and get back to Hagaru-ri. The column was hit on all sides, suffering heavy casualties.

Louis was listed as Missing in Action (MIA) in the fighting at the Chosin Reservoir on December 2, 1950. His body was lost or destroyed and never recovered. An "IN MEMORY OF" marker was placed in Section 3 of the Gettysburg National Cemetery in his honor. He was a recipient of the Purple Heart.