News-Info-Alerts

Re: Possible Korean War Remains Returned

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: August 20, 2002

"Possible American war remains repatriated from North Korea
Tue Aug 20,11:06 AM ET

By HANS GREIMEL, Associated Press Writer

TOKYO - Remains recently unearthed in North Korea ( news - web sites) and believed to be those of seven American soldiers missing in action from the Korea War were repatriated Tuesday to the moan of bagpipes and the crack of a 21-gun salute.


A bugler blew taps as the caskets, draped in powder blue United Nations ( news - web sites) flags, were carried by full-dress military honor guards under a full moon and into a hangar at Yokota Air Base on the outskirts of Tokyo.

A U.S. Air Force cargo plane picked up the remains in Pyongyang earlier in the day. On Wednesday, they are scheduled to be flown to the U.S. Army's Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii for forensic examination.

"They will try to determine who these people were," Yokota's Captain Michael Braibish said after Tuesday's memorial ceremony.

The recoveries were made in the first of three searches scheduled this year in North Korea by U.S. teams with help from the North Korean army. The second search is scheduled to start Aug. 24 and end one month later. The final search will be in October.

The remains were first flown to Yokota Air Base because it was a staging point for the U.N. forces that backed South Korea ( news - web sites) during the 1950-53 Korean War.

Flags of the nations that sent troops, including Turkey, Thailand and Great Britain, flanked the caskets at Tuesday's hangar ceremony.

A group of U.S. veterans presented a funeral wreath.

Tom Schneider, commander of the UN Command Rear based in Japan, said their return would bring "a little bit of closure to those families" that lost loved ones.

More than 8,100 U.S. troops remain unaccounted for from the Korean War. Since 1996, searches by U.S. teams have recovered 159 sets of remains in North Korea, of which 13 have been identified positively.

Six of the seven new sets were recovered near the Chosin Reservoir. The area was the scene of fierce battles in November and December 1950, when the 1st Marine Division was overwhelmed by a surprise Chinese army assault and was forced to withdraw under fire. Elements of the Army's 7th Infantry Division also fought there.

Pentagon ( news - web sites) officials have estimated that the Chosin area eventually could yield about 1,000 remains of American servicemen.

The seventh set of remains was recovered along the Chongchon River near the junction of Unsan and Kujang counties, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) north of Pyongyang. The area was the site of battles between the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry and 25th Infantry Division and Chinese forces in November 1950.

Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press"