Private First Class Albert E. Atkins comes home

Gary sends us a link to the news that Private First Class Albert E. Atkins has made it home finally. He was reported to be missing in action along with two other soldiers on May 23, 1951, when his unit, Company E, 2nd Battalion, 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team assaulted Hill 911 near Mae-Bong, South Korea.

Hondo told us that his earthly remains were identified in June.

We learn that he was interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawaii by the 225th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division with PFC Atkins’ family in attendance. According to the VA;

On Sept. 17, 1966, two South Koreans provided information regarding three side-by-side graves in the vicinity of Kwandra-ri, South Korea. A U.S. Army Graves Registration team recovered the remains and sent them to the Central Identification Unit in Yokohama, Japan for analysis. Two of the remains were individually identified as members of Atkins’ company, but the third set of remains, labeled X-6385, could not be identified and was interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

After a thorough historical and scientific analysis of information associated with remains X-6385 it was determined that the remains could likely be identified. After receipt of approval, the remains were disinterred from the NMCP on Nov. 1, 2005 and sent to the laboratory for analysis.

To identify Atkins’ remains, scientists from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA analysis, involving next-generation sequencing, which matched his family, as well as dental and anthropological analysis, which matched his records, and circumstantial evidence.