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Remember...Thomas Joseph Sigley
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Thomas Joseph Sigley was born on May 27, 1930, in Tunnelton, Preston County, West Virginia. His parents were William Beryl Sigley and Leta Murphy Sigley. According to the 1940 Federal Census, the Sigley family included Mr. and Mrs. Sigley, Mr. Sigley's mother Samantha, and the Sigley children-Thomas, Ocie, and Neal. Mr. Sigley was a farmer, and there was a boarder in the house.
In November 1951, Thomas Sigley joined the Army. He was placed with the 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. By that time, Chinese troops had been fighting in the Korean War for a year. The book Korea 1951-1953 summarizes operations during the war. (John Miller Jr., Owen J. Curroll, and Margaret E. Tackley, Department of the Army: Center of Military History, 1956 [reprinted 1989, 1997], accessed 27 August 2018, https://history.army.mil/html/books/021/21-2/CMH_Pub_21-2.pdf.) According to this account, the 25th Infantry Division combined with the Republic of Korea 1st Infantry Division, the Turkish Brigade, and the 29th British Infantry Brigade to form I Corps. At the time Thomas Sigley joined the war, the 25th was moving north.
Another document on the Center of Military History site provides additional details regarding the 25th Infantry Division:
Early in November the 25th Division was ordered north and assembled along the 38th Parallel with headquarters at Kaesong. There the 25th continued its campaign against bypassed enemy elements.On 19 November the 25th Division moved north again, this time back into the front line north of P'yongyang near Anju. The division launched an offensive on 24 November, advancing against increasing resistance for two days. The Chinese Communists, however, had launched their first major offensive and smashed through the Eighth Army front to the right of the 25th Division, forcing the entire UN line to withdraw. The 25th began a series of delaying actions that carried it back to Kaesong by 8 December and behind the Imjin River by the 14th. A Communist attack on New Year's Day 1951 broke through the ROK 1st Division on the right flank of the 25th Division, making the 25th's positions untenable. A new defensive line was established in the vicinity of Ch'onan early in January, after the division fought rearguard actions to allow the evacuation of Seoul. ("25th Infantry Division [Tropic Lightning] in the Korean War," accessed 27 August 2018, https://history.army.mil/documents/Korea/25id-KW-IP.htm.)
According to Korea 1951-1953, the period of the war at the end of 1951 was best described by the word "stalemate." Fighting had tapered off to a series of patrol and small unit skirmishes. Fighting did not stop completely, but there was not a large-scale offensive ground action. In part this was due to the weather and the fact that the cost of the ground war was not justified by the expected gains and, in part, due to the hope that armistice talks would yield peace. ("25th Infantry Division [Tropic Lightning] in the Korean War"; Korea 1951-1953.) The first half of 1952 could be described as "containment" for the United Nations forces. Naval units blockaded the North Korean coast. U. S. jets limited hostile air actions.
Action picked up again in May 1952 and the enemy grew more aggressive. Skirmishes broke out during clear weather, but torrential rains in July limited fighting. Then the U. S. bombed Pyongyang, North Korea, on July 11. On July 26, 1952, Thomas Sigley was killed in action in North Korea. Research did not reveal the nature of the action which resulted in his death.
| Thomas Sigley was the son of William Beryl Sigley, whose half-brother, Arthur Hanline, died during World War I. Thomas Sigley was buried in Mount Israel Cemetery, not far from where his uncle rests in peace. |  Headstone for Thomas Joseph Sigley, Mount Israel Cemetery, Preston County. Courtesy Cynthia Mullens |
Article prepared by Cynthia Mullens
August 2018
West Virginia Archives and History welcomes any additional information that can be provided about these veterans, including photographs, family names, letters and other relevant personal history.
