Bibliography

Primary Sources

“9th Infantry Regiment - Command Report - February 1951: 2nd Infantry Division.” Korean War Project, Box 7, File 6, National Archives and Records Administration. https://www.koreanwar2.org/kwp2/usa/2id/002/USA_2ID_070006_0251.pdf.

“Aberdeen Notes.” The Carolinian [Raleigh, N.C.], March 24, 1951. https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn80008926/1951-03-24/ed-1/seq-24/.

Barden, Albert. Man-Mur Bowling Center, 2516 Hillsborough St, Raleigh, NC. Photograph. c. 1940. Albert Barden Photograph Collection, State Archives of North Carolina. 

“Blood From Bragg Flows Toward Korea War Front.” The Carolinian [Raleigh, North Carolina], April 14, 1951. https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn80008926/1951-04-14/ed-1/seq-11/.

“Blood Urgently Needed for Armed Services to Save Lives in Korea.” The Zebulon Record [Zebulon, North Carolina], October 23, 1951. https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073191/1951-10-23/ed-1/seq-1/.

“Bloodmobile to Be in Raleigh Two Days Next Week.” The Zebulon Record [Zebulon, North Carolina], August 8, 1952. https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073191/1952-08-08/ed-1/seq-1/.

Department of the Army. Rifle Company, Infantry, Airborne Infantry, and Mechanized Infantry. Fort Lee, Virginia: Headquarters, Department of the Army, 1962. https://www.bits.de/NRANEU/others/amd-us-archive/FM7-11%2862%29.pdf.

Dorothy Corbin Jones. North Carolina, U.S., Death Certificates, 1909-1976. Digital images. Ancestry Classroom. 

Eunice Turner Corbin. North Carolina, U.S., Death Certificates, 1909-1976. Digital images. Ancestry Classroom. 

Eva Corbin Young. North Carolina, U.S., Death Certificates, 1909-1976. Digital images. Ancestry Classroom. 

“FAMILY INCOME at $1,231; This Was Median Figure in 1939, Census Bureau Says.” The New York Times [New York, New York], April 30, 1943. www.nytimes.com/1943/04/30/archives/family-income-at-1231-this-was-median-figure-in-1939-census-bureau.html.

George Heney Corbin. Wake, North Carolina, U.S. Birth Certificate Index, 1870-2005. Digital images.  Ancestry Classroom.  

“Have You Written Your Serviceman in Korea?” The Carolinian [Raleigh, North Carolina], April 28, 1951. https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn80008926/1951-04-28/ed-1/seq-19/.

James W. Corbin, Report of Death Memorandum, Department of the Army, National Archives and Records Administration - St. Louis.

James William Carbin. Wake, North Carolina, U.S. Birth Certificate Index, 1870-2005. Digital images.  Ancestry Classroom. 

James William Corbin. World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947. Digital Images. Ancestry Classroom. 

Johnie B. Corbin. North Carolina, U.S., Marriage Records, 1741-2011. Digital images. Ancestry Classroom.  

Johnny B. Corbin. North Carolina, U.S., Death Certificates, 1909-1976. Digital images. Ancestry Classroom.  

Johnny Benton Corbin. World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947. Digital Images. Ancestry Classroom. 

“Legion Endorses Bloodmobile Visit.” The Zebulon Record [Zebulon, North Carolina], August 8, 1952. https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073191/1952-08-08/ed-1/seq-1/. 

“Local Red Cross to Take Part in Blood Program.” The Carolinian [Raleigh, North Carolina], January 27, 1951. https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn80008926/1951-01-27/ed-1/seq-22/.

Mattie Corbin. North Carolina, U.S., Death Certificates, 1909-1976. Digital images. Ancestry Classroom. 

North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Registration form for the National Register of Historic Places: Chatham Manufacturing Company-Western Electric Company. Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 2010. https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/FY0781.pdf. 

North Carolina. Wake County. 1940 U.S. Census. Digital Images. Ancestry Classroom. 

North Carolina. Wake County. 1950 U.S. Census. Digital Images. Ancestry Classroom. 

Stone, Walter T. 9th Regiment Korea 50-57. Photographs. 1950-1957.https://manchu.org/linage/korea/.

U.S. War Department. Infantry Field Manual: Rifle Company, Rifle Regiment. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1942. https://ia600207.us.archive.org/1/items/Fm7-10/Fm7-10.pdf. 

William Corbin. North Carolina, U.S., Death Certificates, 1909-1976. Digital images. Ancestry Classroom.  

Working at Sub-Assembly Stations. Photograph. Images of North Carolina, Alamance County Public Libraries. https://lib.digitalnc.org/record/100542?v=uv#?xywh=-1114%2C261%2C8554%2C4429.

“Zebulon Residents Asked to Give Blood for Use of Men in Korea; Facilities to Be at State Hospital.” The Zebulon Record [Zebulon, North Carolina.], June 15, 1951. https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073191/1951-06-15/ed-1/seq-1/.

Secondary Sources
 
“The Battle of Chip’yong-ni.” The Army Heritage Center Foundation. Accessed January 8, 2026. https://www.armyheritage.org/soldier-stories-information/the-battle-of-chipyong-ni/.

“City of Raleigh.” North Carolina History Project. Accessed December 1, 2025. https://northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/city-of-raleigh/.
 
“Cpl. James William Corbin.” Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. Accessed December 30, 2025. https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt00000004mOgEAI.

“Cpl. James William Corbin.” Find a Grave. Accessed October 28, 2925. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/159968093/james-william-corbin. 

“Friends of Oberlin Village.” Friends of Oberlin Village. Accessed October 28, 2025. https://friendsofoberlinvillage.org/.
 
“History” 2nd Infantry Division-Korea. Accessed January 28, 2026. https://www.2id.korea.army.mil/About-Us/History/.
 
“James W. Corbin.” American Battle Monuments Commission. Accessed October 28, 2025. https://weremember.abmc.gov/s?q=*&criteria=title%3DCorbin~first_name%3DJames~middle_name%3DW.&type=16&v=G. 

“Oberlin Village.” American Battlefield Trust. Accessed October 30, 2025. https://www.battlefields.org/visit/heritage-sites/oberlin-village
 
Blazich Jr., Frank Arthur. 2008. Alert Today, Alive Tomorrow: The North Carolina Civil Defense Agency and Fallout Shelters, 1961-1963. North Carolina State University. https://repository.lib.ncsu.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/4c454d73-81da-40f9-9440-e4109b71bf6c/content.
 
Byers, Neil. “Nike Missile Program materials from Alamance County Public Libraries Now Available Online at DigitalNC.” DigitalNC Blog. February 26, 2019. https://www.digitalnc.org/blog/nike-missile-program-materials-from-alamance-county-public-libraries-now-available-online-at-digitalnc/. 

Cockrell, David L. "Korean War." NCpedia. State Library of NC. 2006. https://www.ncpedia.org/korean-war. 

Gugeler, Russell A. Combat Actions in Korea. Office of the Chief of Military History, United States Army, 1970. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD1134169.pdf.

“James William Corbin.” Defense Casualty Analysis System Public Use File, 1950-2005. The National Archives. https://aad.archives.gov/aad/record-detail.jsp?dt=3179&mtch=1&cat=GP21&tf=F&q=james+w+corbin&bc=sl&rpp=10&pg=1&rid=114178.

“James William Corbin.” Korean War Casualty File. The National Archives. https://aad.archives.gov/aad/record-detail.jsp?dt=230&mtch=2&cat=GP21&tf=F&q=james+w+corbin&bc=sl&rpp=10&pg=1&rid=44042&rlst=44042,44043

Little, M. Ruth. “Rooted in Freedom: Raleigh, North Carolina’s Freedmen’s Village of Oberlin, an Antebellum Free Black Enclave.” North Carolina Historical Review. Volume 97, Number 4, (October 2020): pp. 425–50. 

Little, Ruth. 2006. The Development of Modernism in Raleigh, 1945-1965. Prepared for the Raleigh Historic Districts Commission, 2006. https://www.hpo.nc.gov/media/598/open.
 
Marshall, S. L. A. Infantry Operations and Weapons Usage in Korea. Operations Research Office, Johns Hopkins University, 1953. https://thekwe.org/topics/reports/after_action/commentary_on_infantry_weapons_korea_1950_51.pdf. 

Napier, Courtney. “Oberlin’s Persistence.” The Assembly. February 16, 2021. Accessed December 30, 2025. https://www.theassemblync.com/place/the-persistence-of-oberlin. 

Tomlin, Jimmy. “Back in the Day: An Atomic Honeymoon.” Our State. April 27, 2021. Accessed December 30, 2025. https://www.ourstate.com/back-in-the-day-an-atomic-honeymoon/.

“Washington Graded and High School,” Raleigh Historic. Accessed January 29, 2026. https://raleighhistoric.org/items/show/93.

Williams, Shane. “North Carolina State Capitol.” North Carolina History Project. https://northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/north-carolina-state-capitol/.


Biography
Early Life 
Corporal James William Corbin was born on January 29, 1929. His parents were William and Eunice Turner Corbin of Raleigh, North Carolina. He was the youngest of five. His siblings were Eva, John, Dorothy, and George. 

The Corbin family resided in historic Oberlin Village. Oberlin Village was established when former enslaved person Jesse Pettiford purchased 16 acres from George and Maraget Cameron Mordecai in 1858 to establish a free Black settlement. It is said to have been named for Oberlin College in Ohio, which was known for providing opportunities for African Americans, several of whom were from the Raleigh area.

As a young boy, Corbin most likely attended the Oberlin Village community school, Oberlin Graded School. It is unknown whether he attended high school, but if he did, he would have attended Washington Graded and High School, the first public African American high school in Raleigh. 

Sources suggest that the Corbin family likely struggled financially with five children. William’s delivery driver income of $728 per year was just 59% of the 1939 median family income of $1,231.  According to the 1940 U.S. Census, three of Corbin’s siblings held jobs alongside their mother and father. Their mother, Eunice, worked as a laundress while sisters Eva and Dorothy were maids and brother John was a janitor. 

At the time of his registration for the draft on February 11, 1947, Corbin worked at the Man-Mur Bowling Center on Hillsboro Street in Raleigh.

Homefront 
Raleigh, the capital city of North Carolina, is located in the Piedmont region in the northeast central part of the state. In addition to serving as the center of state government, Raleigh was a hub for technology and education. Raleigh’s economy has long been linked to government and education, while the surrounding region was known for tobacco production. 

In 1949, the Cameron Village shopping center opened adjacent to the historic Oberlin Village community. Although some Oberlin residents worked for the company that built Cameron Village, they were not allowed to visit or spend money there because of the color of their skin. Furthermore, the Cameron name harkened to the slaveowner who had once owned some of Oberlin’s founding citizens. Further Raleigh construction projects, particularly the expansion of Wade Avenue, caused significant damage to the historic community of Oberlin, including the loss of more than 10 homes. This community destruction, alongside rampant racism, drove many residents who could not afford college to enlist in the military. 

Raleigh began its transition to an urban center after World War II. The population increased, necessitating additional housing. This need was addressed with the creation of suburban developments. Industry began to grow as evidenced by the establishment of the York Industrial Center in 1951. It would go on to house a Colonial Stores grocery warehouse and distribution center, Sift & Company, the Raleigh Farmers Market, Kraft Foods, and more. With this growth and expansion came the need for roads, water, sewer services, and schools. This improved infrastructure was essential to the construction of Research Triangle Park in the late 1950s. 

While Raleigh-specific figures are unavailable, across North Carolina, more than 177,000 citizens served during the Korean War. Of these citizens, 784 were killed, while 201 were categorized as Prisoners of War or Missing in Action. 

Industrial expansion in nearby Winston-Salem was hampered when materials such as steel were allocated to military support. The Western Electric Company in Burlington, about an hour outside of Raleigh, was involved in the U.S. Army’s Nike Missile Program and operated the Tarheel Army Missile Plant. 

Local efforts to support service members during this period included blood drives to meet military needs in Korea, the distribution of magazines and books to soldiers, and an appeal to write to servicemen. 

North Carolina had its own Council of Civil Defense (NCCD) months before the Federal Civil Defense Agency (FCDA) was created. While the FCDA encouraged duck-and-cover drills in schools nationwide, the NCCD focused on emergency preparedness, particularly on fallout shelters in the 1960s. Raleigh’s Executive Mansion was fitted with a fallout shelter in the basement in 1959. As of March 1960, only 25 homes in North Carolina and 2 public buildings had fallout shelters. By August 1960, the NCCD had completed and dedicated a federally designed prototype shelter in Raleigh that was stocked by the Raleigh Women’s Club. Raleigh’s First Federal Savings and Loan building was one of the first commercial buildings in the state to be built with a fallout shelter. The NCCD further pushed for a statewide network of public and private fallout shelters.

Military Experience 
Corbin served in the U.S. Army. He was assigned to Company K, 3rd Battalion, 9th Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division as a light weapons infantryman. Day-to-day tasks of an infantryman included weapons maintenance, patrolling, reconnaissance, digging and maintaining protective trenches and foxholes, and preparing for offensive and defensive movements. In battle, light infantrymen were involved in close combat in a wide variety of weather and terrain. 

The 2nd Infantry Division arrived in Pusan, South Korea, on July 23, 1950. They were the first unit to arrive in Korea straight from the United States. This division received the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation on September 29, 1950, for its defense of the Naktong River. During this operation, Private First Class Corbin was seriously wounded by a missile, but he eventually returned to duty. 

In February 1951, Corbin’s unit was involved in a counteroffensive mission north of Wonju to drive back Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) that had crossed into Korea. During this period, the unit was involved in securing missions and patrolling areas where hostilities were ongoing, often under fire. These soldiers endured poor conditions, including water, mud, snow, and cold, which made sleep difficult. In the command report, it was noted that “freezing nights and thawing days were a continuous nightmare” during this time. 

On February 11, 1951, Private First Class Corbin’s unit participated in the Battle of Chip’yong-ni, during which he was captured by the CCF. By February 18, the CCF began withdrawing after incurring at least 5,000 casualties thanks to the efforts of Corbin’s unit.

Commemoration 
After his capture by the CCF, Private First Class Corbin was moved north to the Yalu Prisoner of War camps, where he died as a result of malnutrition and lack of medical care on June 10, 1951. Another soldier, Private First Class Mack L. Spearman, helped with his burial and later provided a statement to Army officials to ensure that his fate would be known. Corbin was promoted to corporal on May 1, 1953, upon the declaration of his death. His remains were never returned to the United States, but he is memorialized on Court Four of the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi.

Much of Corporal Corbin’s military record was lost in the July 12, 1973, fire at the National Personnel Records Center. Yet what history cannot fully document, his actions make unmistakably clear. His service played a vital role in the fight that ultimately forced the Chinese Communist Forces to withdraw from Chip’yong-ni. Despite being seriously wounded in combat, he returned to the fight, endured captivity as a prisoner of war, and ultimately gave his life in service to his country.

This profile was researched by Ms. Karen Stevens, a teacher at Cane River Middle School, as part of National History Day’s Researching Silent Heroes program in the 2025/2026 academic year.

This profile was funded by a contract with the American Battle Monuments Commission.



Corporal Corbin was a member of Company K, 3rd Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He was seriously Wounded in Action by the enemy in South Korea on September 22, 1950 and returned to duty November 4, 1950. He was taken Prisoner of War while fighting the enemy in South Korea on February 12, 1951 and died while a prisoner on June 10, 1951. His remains were not recovered. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.
-Information provided by the American Battle Monuments Commission

James W. Corbin’s name is engraved on the Honolulu Memorial at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Courtesy of the American Battle Monuments Commission.

A photo of a white marble walls with several names engraved, including Corbin.

The 9th Regiment, 2nd Division Headquarters in Korea, c.1950. 4th Battalion/9th Infantry Regiment Manchu.

A black and white photo shows several tents and a sign.

An orphaned child in Korea with soldiers of the 9th Regiment, c. 1950. 4th Battalion/9th Infantry Regiment. Manchu.

A black and white photo of a young Korean boy standing and looking at the camera.

9th Regiment soldiers with North Korean Prisoners of War, c. 1950. 4th Battalion/9th Infantry Regiment Manchu.

A black and white photograph shows a few Korean prisoners walking with American soldiers. 

Man-Mur Bowling Center in Raleigh, NC. State Archives of North Carolina (N_53_16_2995).

A black and white photograph of a large one-story building labeled Man-Mur Bowling Center.

The 1940 Census shows the Corbin family, National Archives and Records Administration.

A snapshot of the 1940 Census showing the information for the Corbin family.

JAMES W. CORBIN

Service

MISSING IN ACTION

Corporal

Resting Place

Mementos

Tributes

Word Cloud

undefined

Milestones

Mementos

Historical Documents

Veteran programs and services

More VA resources

Get VA updates

In crisis? Get help now

Contact us