News-Info-Alerts

Re: Korean War MIA Recovery Effort

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: July 29, 2003

"On 50th Anniversary of Korean Armistice, Efforts to Retrieve MIAs Continue

BY BILL CAHIR
c.2003 Newhouse News Service

WASHINGTON -- Cpl. John Kyle and Cpl. Earle Henry Markle enlisted in the U.S. Army in York, Pa., fought in the same unit during the Korean War and were listed as missing in action Nov. 2, 1950.

The secretary of the Army declared the two men dead on Dec. 31, 1953.

The remains of 8,100 service personnel -- killed in action, missing in action or taken prisoner in Korea -- have yet to be found even as the 50th anniversary of the July 27, 1953, armistice approaches.

The U.S. government every year negotiates with North Korea for the right to search for the skeletal remains of U.S. personnel.

The Defense Department on July 14 announced it would send teams to Unsan County, about 60 miles north of Pyongyang, and to sites at the Chosin Reservoir, in the northeast part of North Korea, in September and October of this year.

The searches will constitute the 26th and 27th attempts since July 1996 to recover the remains of soldiers, airmen and Marines killed, missing or taken prisoner in North Korea.

The Pentagon presumes all of the unaccounted-for men of the Korean War are dead.

Tensions between the Bush administration and the dictatorship of Kim Jong Il have overshadowed recent talks about the remains of U.S. personnel, said Frank Metersky of New York City, a Marine Corps veteran of the Korean War and co-chairman of the POW-MIA committee of The Chosin Few, a Korean War veterans' group.

Metersky, who has participated in talks with North Korean diplomats for many years, says Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz is the driving force behind the Bush administration's continued attempts to arrange recovery efforts with Pyongyang.

In the 50 years since the fighting halted in Korea, Army search teams have recovered the remains of just 178 men killed in the North. Most have been found in Unsan County.

Only 14 have been positively identified and returned to their families, says Larry Greer, spokesman for the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office.

The Pentagon says it needs to gather samples of mitochondrial DNA, a type of biological information carried by all members of a family but passed on only by female relatives, to help determine the identity of the soldiers found so far.

The military additionally uses dental records and circumstantial evidence to determine who fought and died at specific sites.

"We do find dog tags," Greer said. "If (dead Americans) were buried by friendly forces, chances are they were buried with their dog tags. DNA is helpful, but it doesn't solve everything."

Former State Department official Ken Quinones, who took part in a 1992 mission to North Korea that helped launch the remains recovery process, says he hopes the Chinese government can arrange a compromise in the current dispute between the United States and North Korea over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.

"We're at the point where we're facing a possible war by the end of the year," Quinones said.

He says he hopes any diplomatic solution will allow searches to be completed for those killed, missing and taken prisoner five decades ago. Even now, more U.S. personnel could be returned to their families.

"Many of the MIAs did become POWs and were marched into China, and died in camps on the Korea-China border," Quinones said. The North Korean and Chinese governments to date have not allowed any U.S. investigators to visit those sites, he said.

Kyle and Markle, the two missing corporals from Pennsylvania, were both members of a heavy weapons company in the Army's 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. Their unit fought in the battle at Unsan, a surprise attack that marked China's entry into the Korean War.

They were two of roughly 800 men who disappeared during the three-day battle.

According to his many critics, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commander of the U.S. forces, blundered badly at Unsan.

MacArthur failed to recognize the telltale signs of Chinese intervention: the capture of Chinese soldiers; smoky forest fires the Chinese had lit to conceal large troop movements; and, despite the great clouds of smoke, the occasional spotting of Chinese units by observer planes.

"It's a horrible story," said Edward Barker Jr., a military researcher who co-manages an Internet site called the Korean War Project (www.koreanwar.org).

"It shows how the egomaniacal personality of Gen. MacArthur caused tens of thousands of casualties over a 40-day period," Barker said. "It was one of the biggest military blunders of MacArthur's career."

By Oct. 31, 1950, the Eighth Cavalry Regiment -- including Kyle and Markle -- had arrived at Unsan, a mining city 50 miles from the Chinese border.

"The Eighth Cav went into bivouac not expecting any meaningful engagement, but during the morning of Nov. 1 were attacked by overwhelming Chinese forces," Barker said.

The Chinese struck southward with two divisions. Some Americans ran in a panicked retreat; some died in bayonet charges.

"Over 70 hours, there was incredible hand-to-hand fighting. They were isolated and cut off. They were overwhelmed. The survivors snuck out through the hills and were met by other elements of the 1st Cavalry Division."

For more information, see the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office Web site at www.dtic.mil/dpmo.

(Bill Cahir can be contacted at bill.cahir@newhouse.com)"