Another Five Return
DPAA has identified and accounted for the following formerly-missing US military personnel.
From World War II
• Cpl. Roger K. Nielson, E Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, USMC, was lost on 20 November 1943 on Tarawa. He was accounted for on 24 September 2015.
From Korea
• CPL Robert V. Witt, 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, US Army, was lost on 2 December 1950 in North Korea. He was accounted for on 11 September 2015.
• PFC Frank Worley, 503rd Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division, US Army, was lost on 12 February 1951 in North Korea. He was accounted for on 19 September 2015.
• CPL Robert P. Graham, A Company, 13th Engineer Combat Battalion, 7th Infantry Division, US Army, was lost on 13 February 1951 in North Korea. He was accounted for on 22 September 2015.
• CPL George H. Mason, 2nd Reconnaissance Company, 2nd Infantry Division, US Army, was lost on 14 February 1951 in North Korea. He was accounted for on 8 September 2015.
You’re no longer missing, elder brothers-in-arms. Our apologies that your recovery took so long.
Now you’re home. Rest in peace.
. . .
Over 73,000 US personnel remain unaccounted for from World War II; over 7,800 US personnel remain unaccounted for from the Korean War; and over 1,600 remain unaccounted for in Southeast Asia (SEA). Comparison of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from recovered remains against mtDNA from a matrilineal descendant can assist in making a positive ID for unidentified remains that have already been recovered, or which may be recovered in the future.
DPAA’s web site now has what appears to be a decent “Contact Us” page. The page doesn’t have instructions concerning who can and cannot submit a mtDNA sample or how to submit one, but the POCs listed there may be able to refer you to someone who can answer that question – or may be able to answer the question themselves. If you think you might possibly qualify, please contact one of those POCs for further information.
If your family lost someone in one of these conflicts and you qualify to submit a mtDNA sample, please arrange to submit one. By doing that you just might help identify the remains of a US service member who’s been repatriated but not yet been identified – as well as a relative of yours, however distant. Or you may help to identify remains to be recovered in the future.
Everybody deserves a proper burial. That’s especially true for those who gave their all while serving this nation.
Category: No Longer Missing
CPL George H. Mason was born on June 8, 1931 and is memorialized with a bronze plaque at Emery Cemetery in Marshall County, Mississippi. He was not forgotten by at least one person, someone who presumably provided the DNA sample to enable positive ID and the someone who took and posted info, however scant, regarding CPL Mason’s memorial plaque. CPL Mason, forever 20, was, like all of us, loved by someone in his day. He is not forgotten. May he rest at home in peace.
CPL Robert V. Witt, PFC Frank Worley, and CPL Robert P. Graham are all known to have died in captivity. This makes my blood boil.
Welcome home Sirs, at long last, welcome home.
//question: From what I can tell, PFC Frank Worley has not been awarded the POW Medal, and presumably neither have CPL Witt nor CPL Graham (I understand the medal was created in the ’60s, but was authorized for retroactive award). Is there any mechanism (other than action by the family) to ensure they are considered for the POW Medal? If so, I think it would better represent details of their service to future generations, not to mention that they earned it.
Witt and Worley are shown as having been awarded the POW Medal by the Military Times “Hall of Valor” database.
http://valor.militarytimes.com/search.php
Graham is not.
I’ve been told that award of the POW Medal is done under “service medal” rules, and that thus no orders are posted. AR 600-8-22 confirms this; see para 2-9.j. That para also provides a procedure whereby surviving POWs and their NOK may request the POW Medal be issued to them. Presumably the Board for Correction of Military Records of the appropriate service would be the vehicle by which their archived service records would be corrected to reflect the award.
Note that AR 600-8-22 lists an old address for NPRC (used by veterans/NOK for POW Medal requests for those who retired or were discharged prior to 1 October 2002). NPRC has moved; the correct mailing address for NPRC is now
National Personnel Records Center
1 Archives Drive
Saint Louis, MO 63138
Thanks Hondo for that answer. I hope CPL Graham’s family will make that request. Sorry about not checking the DB before posting. I should have done my own heavy lifting.
I did find that CPL Geroge H. Mason was awarded the POW Medal. http://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient.php?recipientid=61091
So it appears that all 4 of the Korean War vets listed above died in captivity. I guess this is not the time or place to express my sincere thoughts about N. Korea… so I won’t.
Welcome home, boys.
Rest well.
welcome home, thank you for you sacrifice and service.
rest well………….
Salute…….