Pfc. DiSalvo of Copley Township Ohio left Garfield High School before graduating and enlisted in the Army at 17, a common practice in the 1940s. He served two years as a paratrooper and received an honorable discharge. He came back from the Army and was working in a laundromat. Some of his buddies from Garfield talked him into joining the Marine Reserves early in 1950. He worked a lot and missed a lot of the Marine Reserve meetings, but his buddies from Garfield, who also were in the reserves, forged his attendance to keep him from getting kicked out of the unit. They thought they were doing him a favor. That all changed June 25, 1950, when North Korean troops invaded South Korea. His reserve unit was called to action on Labor Day and landed in Korea in November. He hadn't been in Korea very long when he was sent into battle in the Koto-ri area on Nov. 27, 1950. Company F was part of the 1st Marine Division that embarked on a daring assault attempting to cut the road and rail communications of Chinese forces attacking the U.S. Eighth Army. The 1st Marine Division began an epic battle over twisting, icy roads in the mountains. His unit ultimately was cut off by Chinese forces and trapped in the Chosin Reservoir. Because it was winter and horrible conditions, he and 11 others in the unit who died were buried in the Chosin Reservoir by the other members of their unit. The North Koreans reclaimed the area and robbed the graves, stripping the dead soldiers of any identification, medals and teeth and other body parts that contained precious metals. Following the 1953 cease-fire, his remains were among the nearly 10,000 unidentified returned by the North Koreans to the United States. His body went to Japan and then Hawaii, where it was placed with 11 other unknown soldiers in an area of a military cemetery called the Punch Bowl. His family prayed that he would come home every day for years. His parents wanted some sort of closure before they died. But it wasn't to be. Rose DiSalvo died at 70 in 1974, never knowing what happened to her only son. Salvatore DiSalvo died nine years later at 83, knowing only that his son never came home from Korea. Dorothy Elliott and Josephine DiSalvo, two of Nick DiSalvo's sisters, also have died since. The family thought they might find something out in the mid 1990's when the Marines asked for blood to compare. But the bones had been through too many preserving processes in Japan to get a good read. The big breakthrough came through a tooth that had a bizarre filling, it was a one in a million, and the fact that Nick had two fractures in his right arm from an accident he had as a kid. That put the Marines on the right track. They contacted family about getting a picture of Nick and they used the picture to re-create his head shape and make a clay model. It matched the skull that had the tooth with the odd filling. The Marines were positive it was Nick DiSalvo. Nick's casket had a Marine uniform adorned with his various medals, including the Purple Heart, Gold Star Lapel Buttons, United Nations Service Award and Korean Service Award. His remains were enclosed at the bottom of the casket at the foot of the uniform. He was killed during the Chosin Reservoir battle when Marines fought an onslaught of Red Chinese troops at age 20. He was listed as Missing in Action December 2, 1950 in Korea during the Chosin Reservoir Offensive and was declared dead December 2, 1953.

Marines
Company F
2nd Battalion
5th Regiment
1st Marine Division