Every so often the Department of Defense issues press releases announcing the identification of remains from U.S. troops missing in action. Usually found in Korea or Vietnam, these releases remind us there's a number of U.S. military personnel still missing—and that there's an active effort underway to find them. Those responsible for the effort are known as the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC).
So far, December has seen six such announcements from the DoD. Appearing in-between notifications of War on Terror fatalities and officer promotions, it's easy to overlook the return home of veterans from long ago wars. Excerpts from the DoD press releases for the past month:
Staff Sgt. Maurice H. Moore, U.S. Army, Vietnam War
On May 12, 1968, North Vietnamese forces
overran the Kham Duc Special Forces camp and its surrounding
observation posts in Quang Nam-Da Nang Province (formerly Quang Tin
Province), South Vietnam. Moore was one of the 17 U.S. servicemen
unaccounted-for after the survivors evacuated the camp. Search and
recovery efforts at the site in 1970 succeeded in recovering remains of
five of the 17 men. A sixth man was returned alive during Operation
Homecoming in 1973 after having been held prisoner of war by the North
Vietnamese.
Between 1993 and 2006, joint U.S./Vietnam teams, led
by JPAC, conducted eight
investigations and four excavations in the vicinity of the camp
site. The team interviewed former North Vietnamese officers and
soldiers who participated in the battle. Some recalled seeing the
bodies of U.S. servicemen near one of the observation posts, and U.S.
eyewitness accounts placed Moore near the post.
1st Lieutenant Dixie S. Parker, U.S. Army, Korean War
Parker was assigned to Battery B, 8th Field Artillery Battalion, 25th
Infantry Division then occupying a defensive position overlooking the
Kuryong River in P’yongan-Pukto Province, North Korea. On Nov. 27,
1950, Parker was killed in his foxhole while serving as a forward
artillery observer. His body was not recovered.
In 2000, a joint U.S./Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea team, led by JPAC,
excavated a site overlooking the Kuryong River in P’yongan-Pukto
Province where U.S. soldiers were believed to be buried. The team
recovered human remains and non-biological evidence including Parker’s
identification tags and first lieutenant rank insignia.
PFC Donald M. Walter, U.S. Marine Corps, Korean War
Walker was assigned to the Service Company, 1
st Service Battalion, of the 1
st
Marine Division deployed near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. On
Nov. 27, 1950, three Communist Chinese divisions launched an attack on
the Marine positions. Over the next several days, U.S. forces staged a
fighting withdrawal to the south, first to Hagaru-ri, then Koto-ri, and
eventually to defensive positions at Hungnam. Walker died on Dec. 7,
1950, as a result of enemy action near Koto-ri. He was buried by fellow
Marines in a temporary United Nations military cemetery in Hungnam,
which fell to the North Koreans in December 1950. His identity was
later verified from a fingerprint taken at the time of the burial.
During Operation
Glory in 1954, the North Korean government repatriated the remains of
2,944 U.S. soldiers and Marines. Included in this repatriation were
remains associated with Walker’s burial. The staff at the U.S. Army
Mortuary in Kokura, Japan, however, cited suspected discrepancies
between the biological profile from the remains and Walker’s physical
characteristics. The remains were among 416 from Operation Glory
subsequently buried as “unknowns” in the National Memorial Cemetery of
the Pacific (The Punchbowl) in Hawaii.
In April 2007,
the JPAC exhumed remains from The Punchbowl
believed to be those of Walker. Although the remains did not yield
usable DNA data, a reevaluation of the skeletal and dental remains led
to Walker’s identification.
Col. Douglas H. Hatfield and Capt. Richard H. Simpson, U.S. Air Force, Korean WarOn April 12, 1951, Hatfield and Simpson
were two of eleven crewmembers on a B-29 Superfortress that left Kadena
Air Base, Japan, to bomb targets in the area of Sinuiju, North
Korea. Enemy MiG-15 fighters attacked the B-29, but before it crashed,
three crewmembers were able to bail out. They were captured and two of
them were later released in 1954 to U.S. military control during
Operation “Big Switch.” The third crewmember died in captivity. He and
the eight remaining crewmembers were not recovered... [In 2000, a team] excavated an infantry fighting position in Kujang County
where they recovered remains which included those of Hatfield and
Simpson.
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