Albert Vincent Listed on Fallen Heros Memorial

Memorial Day 2024 will be a special time for Kearney, Holt and Paradise. Some 106 years after the first of our fallen gave his life for America, a memorial is finally a reality.

Stage one of construction is now complete at Jesse James Park, north of Kearney. A Fallen Warriors Memorial has been erected ahead of the monument placement.

Future generations will have a single place to commemorate the ultimate sacrifice made by 17 local men far too long forgotten. Their names make the memorial personal, showing the human impact of war on a community and establishing a physical bond with its residents.

As a tribute to these fallen heroes, KPGZ News will publish biographies of the soldiers as provided by Rich Kolb of the Kearney-Holt Fallen Warriors Memorial.

Albert Vincent

Albert was born on the northern border of Chariton County, Mo., but attended Kearney public schools and had been a county resident for several years. He registered for the draft in Clay County on Sept. 14, 1948, and was then working on the David Bevins farm near Kearney. Not long after, Vincent joined the Army. His training was at Camp Chaffee in Arkansas where he was with the 5th Armored Division. In May 1949, he was sent to Japan on occupation duty, and assigned to the 21st Infantry Regiment (nicknamed “The Gimlets”). It was based at Camp Wood in the city of Kumamoto on the island of Kyushu. That was until June 1950 when the Korean War broke out.   

            In response, the 21st Infantry was dispatched to South Korea as part of Task Force Smith. The 1st Battalion numbered only 406 men, many of whom volunteered even though they had only eight weeks of basic training. On July 5, the battalion fought in the Battle of Osan, the first battle of the war. Overrun, six days later the 21st Infantry finally took up defensive positions at Chochiwon. Pfc. Vincent was captured north of there on July 12. All told, the task force sustained 60 killed, 21 wounded and 82 captured (32 of the POWs ultimately died in captivity).    

Brutal North Korean Security Police were in charge of the prisoners. Their leader, when told the soldiers could not keep up with the grueling pace of the march, notoriously proclaimed: “Then let them march till they die.” Forced to trek to North Korea on the notorious “Tiger Death March” from Manpo to Chunggang, some 100 Americans died or were executed over the 100 miles. Vincent perished from exhaustion, exposure and malnutrition at the hands of the communist enemy on November 4.

His remains were never recovered. Consequently, he is honored in the Courts of the Missing at Honolulu’s National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii. He also is remembered on the Korean War Wall of Remembrance (dedicated July 27, 2022) in Washington, D.C.; the official Missouri Korean War Veterans Memorial (dedicated Sept. 28, 2011) in Kansas City’s Washington Park; and at the Korean War Memorial (dedicated April 18, 2018) in Patriots Park at the College of the Ozarks. At the battle site near Osan, the Task Force Smith Monument was erected in tribute to the unit’s gallant stand.     

Tragically, 18 years after Albert’s death, his nephew, Marine Pfc. John Leroy Vincent, lost his life in Vietnam. After serving less than three months there, on April 23, 1968, John accidentally detonated a Claymore mine while burning brush near Cau Lu airfield.

The memorial in Jesse James Park will serve as a permanent site of remembrance, a focal point for Memorial and Veterans Day activities. Remembering the names and lives of those who gave all is a sacred obligation, and today all three communities can be proud that this debt has been symbolically paid in full. The Memorial will be dedicated on Memorial Day, 2024.

KPGZ News - Brian Watts contributed to this story