Re: Korean War Remains Repatriation Ceremony

Date: May 27, 2004

"Repatriation ceremony for Korean War remains set at Yongsan

By Joseph Giordono, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition

YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea — For the first time since 1999, remains believed to be those of U.S. soldiers unearthed during joint recovery operations in North Korea will be repatriated at a U.S. base in South Korea.

The ceremony starts at 10 a.m. Thursday at Yongsan’s Knight Field and is open to the base community, officials said.

According to Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command officials, some two dozen sets of remains were recovered in the latest searches near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. The mission kicked off in early April.

Lt. Gen. Charles Campbell, 8th Army commander, and Jerry Jennings, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel, are to give remarks.

The remains are to be transported to the Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii for identification testing.

Pentagon figures show that some 1,100 GIs remain missing from the Chosin Reservoir campaign, fought in November and December 1950.

A second JPAC team conducted recovery operations in Unsan County, about 60 miles north of Pyongyang. That area was the site of battles in November 1950.

In recent years, remains recovered in South Korea or other locations have been honored at similar Yongsan ceremonies. But this is the first time since May 1999 that remains recovered in North Korea have been repatriated in South Korea, recovery officials said Monday. The 1999 ceremony took place in the DMZ truce village of Panmunjom; many others since then have been held at Yokota Air Base, Japan.

In case of inclement weather, the ceremony will be moved to Collier Field House, officials said.

© 2003 Stars and Stripes"

AND

"War dead honoured

SEOUL: The US military in South Korea honoured 19 soldiers killed in the Korean War over 50 years ago whose remains were recovered in North Korea.

Nineteen sets of remains believed to be those of American soldiers who fought in North Korea in the winter of 1950, were recovered during a recent joint US-North Korean recovery operation.

"Most important is that we will be taking missing Americans from the Korean War back to Amercian soil, so they are no longer lost in the hills in North Korea," said LTC Jerry O'Hara, spokesman for the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, which oversees the search for soldiers missing in action.

After being honoured at a ceremony at the main US Army base in Seoul, the remains were to be transported to Hawaii for identification testing.

The joint team recently recovered 12 sets of remains believed to be those of US Army soldiers in North Korea, and a second team recovered seven sets of remains, the statement added.

Since 1996, 32 joint searches have been conducted, and more than 200 sets of remains believed to be those of US soldiers have been recovered.

© 2004 Gulf Daily News"