Phillip R. Anderson, Jr.

Phillip R. Anderson, Jr., , served in A Company, 1st Battalion of 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division.  He was captured near Seoul, the capital of South Korea, on New Year’s Day 1951 as friendly forces fell back under very heavy attack by a large Chinese Army.  Badly outnumbered, U.S. and U.N. forces had to give up Seoul to the enemy, although it would be taken back later in the year.  After several days in the local area with front-line units, Phillip Anderson began a long march northward into the interior of North Korea.  They stopped first at a former workers’ camp near Suan, which would later be known as Suan Bean Camp, but he was among the very first men to rest there.  A few weeks later, he continued north, around the edge of Pyongyang, to reach the Pukchin-Tarigol Valley, another temporary stopping point.  This time they met many more POWs, from December 1950 battles around Kunu-ri in North Korea.  From there, he marched on to permanent Camp 5 at Old Pyoktong on the south bank of the Yalu River, during March 1951.  He survived that first terrible winter, and stayed there for the rest of his captivity, returning to friendly hands in Operation Big Switch on 7 August 1953.