Too far, too fast
by David Simon
News-Post Staff

	This insignia represents Sgt. Joseph Trail's rank at the time of his disappearance.
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U.S. Army Sgt. Joseph Hayes Trail advanced into enemy territory too far and too fast.

By late November 1950, the 18-year-old and other members of the Headquarters & Service Company, 2nd Engineer Combat Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division, were just 60 miles south of the Yalu River, North Korea's natural border with China. They were among the northernmost troops in the American Army.

The American counteroffensive had succeeded in pushing the Chinese Communist Forces back toward the Yalu, but the force was too small to effectively control all the ground it occupied.

Thousands of soldiers with the Chinese People's Volunteer Army had sneaked across the Yalu and were hiding in the North Korean hills, hoping to take advantage of that weakness.

Trail and his fellow soldiers were spread too thin to withstand a large enemy attack.

One came Nov. 25, 1950. Trail, of Frederick County, and his fellow combat engineers were scattered among the 2nd Division's forces to support different elements of the division. By the night of Nov. 27, the division was driven south of the Chongch'on River.

The 2nd was ordered to retreat south to the town of Sunch'on on Nov. 30. As the soldiers began to hike down the only road south, they found that enemy forces had established 17 well-defended roadblocks along the road.

Outnumbered and surrounded, the American troops formed an armored column to fight their way to safety. The retreat lasted two days and the Americans paid a heavy price — from Nov. 25 to Dec. 2, the 2nd suffered 5,000 casualties, more than one-third of its strength.

Trail was last seen "while his unit was fighting thru a heavily defended roadblock" on the way to Sunch'on, according to a December 1950 memo from the Army.

After the war, debriefings of American prisoners of war helped clarify what happened to Trail.

Along with other wounded or seriously ill captives, Trail was held near the Kunu-ri battlefield for several weeks after the fighting ended. Other prisoners reported he died of malnutrition and exposure to the cold on Jan. 20, 1951. He was buried near Sunch'on.

The Department of Defense Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Central Identification Library Hawaii have recovered some remains from the 2nd Infantry Division's November 1950 battle near Sunch'on, but they were unable to connect them to Trail.