Another Home from Korea
DPAA has identified and accounted for the following formerly-missing US soldier.
• CPL Eldon W. Ervin, HQ Battery, 57th Field Artillery Battalion, 7th Infantry Division, US Army, was lost on 28 Novemer 1950 in North Korea. He was accounted for on 9 February 2016.
You’re no longer missing, CPL Ervin. Our apologies that your return took so long.
Rest in peace, elder brother-in-arms. You’re home now.
. . .
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
Welcome Home Warrior, R. I. P.
CPL Ervin would have served with my dear parted father.
Mostly known as “Bayonet Division” aka “Hourglass Division”.
Probably should read “North” Korea. 57FA was with TF Faith east of Chosin on that date.
Welcome Home and RIP.
Thanks – I thought I’d corrected that, but apparently my last edits didn’t “take” for some reason and I didn’t catch that fact. Fixed now.
Rest well, CPL.
Welcome home,
Glad to have you back home CPL, sorry it took so long.
Rest now.
Welcome Home Sir, and RIP.
Welcome Home, Soldier. We have been waiting for you. Rest in Peace.
“Corporal Ervin was a member of Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 57th Field Artillery Battalion, 7th Infantry Division. He was Killed in Action while fighting the enemy by an enemy mortar wound to his throat at the Chosin Reservoir, North Korea on November 28, 1950. His remains were not recovered. Some records reverse first and middle name. Member of wire section, Headquarters Battery. His remains were declared accounted for on February 7 2016. Thanks to Ray Vallowe for his research and efforts to identify his friend Corporal Eldon Ervin.”
Welcome home, Corporal Ervin.
Forever 21. If you would like to see a pic of this soldier, please use the link below, search Ervin, and select Eldon. And a salute to Ray Vallowe who never forgot.
http://www.koreanwar.org/html/korean_war_project_remembrance.html