DPMO has announced the identification of one US MIA from Korea, and has provided updated information concerning the burial of one former US MIA from SEA. Additionally, published reports indicate a second US MIA from Korea has also been identified.
PFC Donald C. Durfee, M Company, 31st Infantry Regiment, 31st Regimental Combat Team, US Army, formerly of Painesville, Ohio, was reported to have been KIA on on 2 December 1950 near the Chosin Reservoir, North Korea. His remains were not recovered at the time. PFC Durfee’s remains were repatriated in 1954, but could not be identified using the technology of that era; they were interred as an unknown at the National Memorial Cemetery of, the Pacific (AKA “the Punchbowl”) in 1955. By 2013, advances in technology yielded realistic possibility of positive identification of many unknown remains buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. PFC Durfee’s remains were among those exhumed. Using modern forensic techniques, his remains were positively identified, and PFC Durfee was declared accounted for on 6 March 2014. His remains will be returned to his family and will be buried with full military honors at a future date yet to be determined.
Published news accounts indicate that CPL William Franklin Day, C Company, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, formerly of Ballard County, Kentucky, has also been accounted for. CPL Day was lost at Chosin Reservoir near Hill 1221 on or about 2 December 1950. His remains were later repatriated and were recently positively identified using modern forensic techniques. He will be buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Ballard County, Kentucky, on 5 April 2014.
Welcome home, my elder brothers-in-arms. Rest now in peace.
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On 12 March 2014, DPMO also announced funeral arrangements for SSG Lawrence Woods, Headquarters, 5th Special Forces Group, 1st Special Forces, US Army, formerly of Clarksville, Tennessee. SSG Woods was lost 24 October 1964 near the Cambodian border when the C-123 in which he was a passenger was downed by enemy fire. He was accounted for on 27 September 2013; this fact was previously announced by DPMO. SSG Woods will be buried in a group ceremony honoring those lost in that crash on 21 March 2014 at Arlington National Ceremony.
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Over 73,600 US personnel remain unaccounted for from World War II; over 7,890 US personnel remain unaccounted for from the Korean War; and over 1,640 remain unaccounted for in Southeast Asia. If you are a relative of one of the individuals listed here (World War II – critical need), listed here (Korea), or listed here (Southeast Asia) – please consider reading this link to see if you qualify to submit a mtDNA sample.
If you qualify to submit a mtDNA sample, please submit one. By submitting a mtDNA sample, you may be able to help identify US remains that have been recovered and repatriated but not yet positively identified.
Everybody deserves a proper burial. That’s especially true for those who gave their all in the service of this nation.
