Rediscovering a Larchmont Hero:

What Happened to Master Sgt. Francis J. MacDonnell In Korea 50 Years Ago?

by Ned Benton

F. J. MacDonnell 1904 - 1951

Fifty years ago, Larchmonters learned only the bare facts of Sgt. MacDonnell’s fate. In 2004, his surviving family and fellow soldiers are filling in the rest.

A 1954 Obituary

In 1954, The Larchmont Times published an announcement of his death, dryly explaining that Army Master Sergeant Francis J. MacDonnell, who made his home with his sister, Mrs. Marylorette Broderick of Albee Court, Larchmont, had been officially declared dead of malnutrition at Camp 5, Pyoktong, North Korea.

This was a man who traveled the world, but cherished Larchmont as his official home. He had served in the Marines, the Coast Guard and the Army, was a decorated World War II hero, and had then volunteered to serve in the Korean War.

“Sgt. MacDonnell lost his life in the notorious Camp 5 after having survived a forced march from Uijonbu to Pyoktong in the Winter of 1951,” reported The Larchmont Times in 1954.

In 2004, his family and fellow veterans have shared with the Gazette some of the rest of the story.

My Favorite Uncle

"Frank was my favorite uncle," recalled Thomas MacDonnell, now living in Virginia. "I admired his uniform ... he inspired me to want to become a Marine. He always sent me a card with a dollar bill for my birthday ... and when I was a kid a dollar was precious!"

"Francis was always called Frank," reported Diana MacDonnell, Thomas' wife and a 1943 graduate of Mamaroneck High School. The family name is still pronounced with emphasis on the first and last syllable. "Not like the hamburger chain!" she emphasized

"He was born in Manhattan in 1904," explained his nephew, "and his father, who was a telephone worker who joined the NYPD under Police Commisioner Theodore Roosevelt, died when he was a kid. Then his mother died in 1920, and not long after, he signed up for what would turn out to be a military career." Frank MacDonnell served as a Marine in Central America and in the Coast Guard in Alaska.

Frank MacDonnell with his sister, Marylorette Broderick who lived at 2 Brittany Lane and eventually at Albee Court Apartments in Larchmont

"But Larchmont was his home address, because Larchmont was where the family lived," said Thomas MacDonnell. He would always come home on leave to visit his sister, Marylorette Broderick, who lived near Flint Park with her husband, the treasurer of the Todd Shipbuilding Company. "We both joined the American Legion and we would walk over to the Post in Flint Park to have a few beers," said Mr. MacDonnell.

After service in the Marines and the Coast Guard, Frank MacDonnell joined the Army and served in World War II in North Africa and Italy. He was cited by the Army as a hero for saving soldiers from an explosion of gas-filled drums in Italy in 1944. "Eventually he worked with the intelligence section of the Army, but he never could tell us much about that," his nephew recounted.

Called To War Again

Frank MacDonnell dances with his niece Diana Tree MacDonnell (MHS '43) at her wedding to Frank's nephew Thomas.

On an Impossible Mission in North Korea

It was not long before Sgt. MacDonnell was in the thick of battle again, as a member of Company C of the 19th Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, deployed deep into North Korea near the Chinese border.

William H. Funchess and John D. Brown were stationed with Sgt. MacDonnell in Korea and survived to tell what happened next. According to their accounts, as the enemy came forward and the rest of the American forces pulled back, Company C was left with the impossible task of holding their position.

Click here to read his last letter home, and his sister's notes about his capture.

Abandoned, Captured, Marched, Imprisoned:
Lieutenant William Funchess & John D. Brown Recall

Lt. William Funchess, Captain Louis Rockwerk, and Pfc. John D. Brown on a ship in 1953 after release from Camp 5

In his book, Korea POW: A Thousand Days of Torment, Lt. Funchess described what happened during November 1950: "...We were getting within 20 or 25 miles of China and I was on edge ... we kept picking up reports on the radio that Red China had issued threats about entering the war ... we came across a house that contained the bodies of three uniformed soldiers ... we assumed the three dead soldiers were Chinese ... we couldn't figure out what they had been doing in that village ... it worried the hell out of us."

"Suddenly, we received orders to stop our advance and to begin an immediate withdrawal. We were told that large numbers of heavily armed troops were massing to our rear. ... We set up defensive positions ... our mission was to establish a roadblock through which the ROK army would pass and then we would engage the enemy, supposedly North Koreans."

Contacted by the Gazette, John D. Brown, now living in Arkansas, filled in the story. Mr. Brown served with Francis MacDonnell in Korea and was captured and imprisoned in the same POW camp.

"Frank was our first sergeant ... chunky ... about 230 pounds and heavy set, maybe 5'10' tall," recalls "He didn't smoke and I don't recall that he drank either ... He didn't say much about anything ... just business. His job was to keep the paperwork - every man had to be accounted for - whether killed-in-action, missing-in-action or wounded."

"It was the 25th of November. We were northeast of Anju ... scattered out forward on the front line. We were in the process of moving back south, and were ordered to hold a roadblock."

Lt. Funchess explained, "I got on the radio again and talked with Captain Walker. He assured me "A" and "B" companies were headed our way to engage the enemy. I told Captain Walker that I was observing his movements and "A" and "B" companies were headed in the opposite direction. He hesitated a moment when he realized I had caught him in a lie."

Lt. Funchess recalled the next instruction from Captain Walker: "We are withdrawing from the area. I advise you to cover our rear. I wish you luck. Over and out."

At that point, "My heart sank as I knew "C" company and the artillery unit were greatly outnumbered," wrote Lt. Funchness in his book. "It was only a matter of time before we would be overrun."

John Brown picked up the story. "Ten-thousand Chinese showed up ... 4 abreast for miles ... they were all over the place ... there were about 100 of us and a bunch of us were wounded."

Lt. Funchess was wounded in the foot, John Brown suffered five wounds, and Frank MacDonnell was also wounded. Any captured Americans who could stand were rounded up, and those who could not stand were shot. Without medical attention, in the following days, weeks, and months they marched toward Pyoktong. By late January 1951, they arrived at the infamous Camp 5.

Camp #5, Pyoktong

P.O.W. Camp #5 Pyoktong, North Korea 1950

"I was with Frank in Camp 5," John Brown recounted. "We lived in mud huts ... 10 to 12 in an 8 by 10 foot room. He wasn't in my hut, he was a couple huts down ... they wouldn't let us get out ... the only time Frank could see his men was during sick call, meal time or in the bathroom.

"We just had old cracked corn ... everyone got a portion,” said Mr. Brown. “We had no fire or water so we ate it uncooked ... sometimes Frank couldn't digest it. He looked after his men by praying with them and giving away some of his food. He never gave up and fought strongly until the last day."

According to military historian Bill Latham, "Because of his age (46) at the time of capture, MacDonnell would have had a greater challenge in surviving. Temperatures averaged well below zero and prisoners had only the clothing they were captured with; the 24th Infantry Division was one of several units that had not been issued winter clothing. On rare occasions, the Chinese would move prisoners by truck, but most prisoners had to march all the way to Pyoktong (on the Yalu River), and the Chinese often executed those sick and wounded who could not keep up."

Lt. Funchess wrote, "Deaths were becoming more numerous. We couldn't figure out why some died, but we knew some died of starvation, and some from pneumonia. We always wondered who would be next. Death usually came quickly. A man could appear healthy and then dead within a week. It was scary.

"Dog tags were collected from the dead so that the tags could be turned over to the proper authorities after the war ended. The Chinese guards would have none of that, however, and they confiscated the tags ... for some reason the Communists were deliberately trying to destroy the identity of the dead.

"I kept thinking of a way to hide a list of the names of the dead. It then occurred to me that I might be able to hide a list, if I wrote small enough, in the bladder of my fountain pen. I borrowed short lists provided by other POWs and consolidated them."

The Smuggled List of POWs Who Died at Camp 5

In May 1951, Francis J. MacDonnell died. In the middle of the Funchess list appears the entry "M/SGT F.J. McDonald." Contacted by the Gazette recently at his South Carolina home, Mr. Funchess confirmed that the entry could only be for Francis J. MacDonnell.

When Lt. Funchess was released from Pyoktong in 1953, he still had the pen and the hidden list with him. And that’s how the Army and Larchmont learned of the death of Sgt. Francis J. MacDonnell.

The author acknowledges with appreciation the assistance of LTC Casey Neff (and his wife Diana Neff) of the United States Military Academy, who, with LTC William Latham, and the Oral History Project of Korean War POWs, pointed me to Lt. William Funchess. Thanks to Lt. Funchess for his excellent memoir Korea POW: A Thousand Days of Torment, and for suggesting that I contact John D. Brown, Hartwell Champagne and Buford McNamara, who were all with Francis MacDonnell at Camp 5. I also want to thank Ted Barker and the Korean War Project, because I made contact with Francis MacDonnell's relatives when they responded to my posting on that site. I also want to thank Thomas and Diana MacDonnell, and their daughter Barbara, for gathering together the family photographs and memories.