War: Non-Belligerent

Lieut. Gennady Mishin, Soviet Air Force Serial No. 25054, is the only definitely identified Russian casualty of the Korean war. On Sept. 4, 1950 (eleven days before MacArthur's amphibious stroke at Inchon), Mishin's twin-engine bomber was shot down in the Yellow Sea, near the 38th parallel, by fighters from the U.S. carrier Valley Forge. A destroyer got Mishin's body from the wreckage before it sank. According to the U.S. report, the Red-starred Russian plane flew "toward the center of the U.N. [naval] formation in a hostile manner," eventually opening fire on the U.S. fighters. The U.S.S.R. claimed an "outrageous violation" of international law, insisted that the Soviet bomber was unarmed and flying a harmless practice mission out of Port Arthur.

Lieut. Mishin's remains were first interred in the enemy section of the U.N. cemetery at Pusan. Recently they were transferred to a special area labeled "nonbelligerent," only a few yards from the thicket of crosses that mark the graves of U.S. and other U.N. fighting men. Mishin's grave is the only one in the "nonbelligerent" section.