Robert was born 19 May 1931 (or 23 June, according to some sources), the 9th of 10 children, in Palmyra, Maine. He lived there until he joined the Army around 1949, ending up in the 7th Infantry Division, 57th Field Artillery Battalion as a Fire Direction and Liaison Operator. He was a PFC when he went to war in Korea. He was wounded in both legs and captured by North Korean soldiers on December 6, 1950. He died of his wounds 15 Feb 1951 in a North Korean POW camp. His remains were not returned until 2000 and not identified until 2013. He was buried in Bar Harbor 5 October 2013 with full military honors. His name is etched into the Korean War Memorial at Mt. Hope Cemetery in Bangor. A Bangor Daily News article tells the story of the repatriation of Robert Tait's remains and can be read here : "Korean conflict POW’s remains returned to Bar Harbor after 62 years."
Poor Robert had a short life, but he was a part of history. Here is the story of the battle in which Robert was wounded told by one of the men who survived that day, Robert Hammond:
"Went back to Seoul and Inchon, Korea, in September on the Korea Revisit Program sponsored by the Korean government and the Korean Veterans, for American Vets (and others) who fought in the Korean War.
"Of course, none of the 120 vets in my group recognized anything, as a new super-city with modern freeways and high-rises stands where the old burning and bombed out buildings did when we went through the cities some 47 years ago.
"Although the guys in my squad were all killed at the Chosin Reservoir, and are still carried as MIA, none of them were in the machine-gunned ambulance that I crawled out of during the early morning hours of December 2, 1950, during the attempted breakout from the East side of Chosin.
"This is the area where so very many soldiers were lost to the overwhelming numbers of Chinese who fragmented and ultimately destroyed the wounded convoy of trucks trying to reach the Marine position at Hagaru-ri.
"Although the majority of these men were killed or captured on Dec. 1st or 2nd, due to the great loss of men, reports on their status were not written until Dec. 6th, and that is a date you will see referred to frequently on MIA's and KIA's.
A more detailed story of the battle can be found on Wikipedia at this address: Chosin."For anyone who is interested in knowing what happened to the soldiers of 'Task Force Faith,' on Chosin's East side, I would recommend they they obtain a copy of 'EAST OF CHOSIN' by Roy Appleman. The story of the Marines on the South and West of the Reservoir are told in 'CHOSIN' by Eric Hammel. Both books are eye-openers."
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