News-Info-Alerts

Re: Korean War Dog Tag & Remains Mystery

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: December 04, 2003

"Remains discovered in China with dog tag spark mystery

By Jeremy Kirk, Stars and StripesPacific edition, Thursday, December 4, 2003

YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea — It might be one of the eerier items dropped
off at the U.S. military headquarters in Seoul: powdered bones and bone
fragments no larger than paint chips wrapped in paper, along with a photo of
a U.S. Army dog tag.

The remains, allegedly recovered in China and possibly those of an American
soldier from the Korean War, were dropped off Monday at Gate 17 by South
Korean human rights activists, said Albert McFarland, U.S. Forces Korea
mortuary affairs officer.

The package was dropped off by Do Hee-youn, the secretary general of
Citizens Coalition for Human Rights of Abductees and North Korean Refugees.
The group was formed three years ago to aid North Korean refugees, Do said.

Do would not say Thursday how he obtained the remains or the photo of dog
tag, but that he wants to help the United States. Do would not comment
further on his activities in China related to North Korean refugees.

“It was all humanitarian activity,” he said. “It would be great if the
alliance between South Korea and the U.S. can be strengthened by this little
act,” he said, referring to the return of the remains.

The remains will be sent to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in Hawaii
for analysis, McFarland said.

McFarland had the photograph of the dog tag in his office. The circular dog
tag read Dallas Folsom, and identified its owner as a U.S. Marine with type
O blood. McFarland said he was told the original dog tag was still in China.

One problem: Folsom did not die in North Korea along with thousands of other
Marines during the bitter winter of 1950, U.S. military officials said. A
check of the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office found that Dallas Folsom
left North Korea on Dec. 12, 1950, on the USS GM Randall.

Records show Folsom, of the 5th Marine Regiment, was in South Korea two days
later. He returned to the United States about a year later and was
discharged as a staff sergeant in the 1960s.

Efforts to locate Folsom on Monday were unsuccessful. Military officials in
the States are looking for information on whether Folsom still is alive and,
if so, where he is living.

An official with the POW/Missing Personnel Office in Northern Virginia said
previous reports about the remains had been brought up this summer. How the
confusion arose remained unclear.

McFarland said he’s received other remains that could be U.S. soldiers who
died during the 1950-53 Korean War. In July, he sent more bone fragments
given by another civic group to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command. In
early November, McFarland was given 18 photos — including shots of femurs
and skulls — reportedly taken in China.

“Occasionally, they bring stuff to us and we take a look at it,” McFarland
said.

About 8,100 servicemembers remain missing from the Korean War, military
officials say. American and North Korean teams have conducted 27 recovery
operations in North Korea since 1996 and found remains believed to be those
of 180 servicemembers.

The United States and North Korea agreed last month in Bangkok to hold more
recovery missions early next year in Unsan County, about 60 miles north of
Pyongyang near Chosin Reservoir. The reservoir was the scene of heavy
fighting when China entered the war in December 1950, sending U.S. troops in
a hasty southern retreat.

But it’s not just Americans and South Koreans on the receiving end of
remains. Tuesday, the U.N. Command returned the body of a North Korean
sailor to officials at Panmunjom, the area bisected by the Koreas’ border in
the Demilitarized Zone. A fisherman found the body Oct. 8 on Yongpyong
Island in the Yellow Sea.

It was found with a military-style belt and what was believed to be a North
Korean navy uniform. The remains were returned across the border by an honor
guard after inspection by North Korean officers.

“You have to take care of soldiers with respect and dignity,” McFarland
said. “I would hope they do the same thing for us.”

Sandra Jontz and Choe Song-won contributed to this story.

© 2003 Stars and Stripes"