Two More Come Home
DPAA has identified and accounted for the following formerly-missing US military personnel.
From Korea
• SFC Robert R. Cummings, K Company, 3rd Battalion, 187th Airborne Infantry Regiment, US Army, was lost on 29 November 1950 in North Korea. He was accounted for on 14 November 2016.
• SFC Harold P. Haugland, D Battery, 15th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion, 7th Infantry Division, US Army, was lost on 2 December 1950 in North Korea. He was accounted for on 15 November 2016.
Welcome back, elder brothers-in-arms. Our apologies that your return took so long.
You’re home now. 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 DNA from recovered remains against DNA from some (but not all) blood relatives can assist in making a positive ID for unidentified remains that have already been recovered, or which may be recovered in the future.
On their web site’s “Contact Us” page, DPAA now has FAQs. The answer to one of those FAQs describes who can and cannot submit DNA samples useful in identifying recovered remains. The chart giving the answer can be viewed here. The text associated with the chart is short and can be viewed in DPAA’s FAQs.
If your family lost someone in one of these conflicts and you qualify to submit a DNA 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, brothers.
Sometime after Norwegian Peter Haughland arrived in the United States in 1909 at age 18 or 19, he started a new life in Montana, where he met and married Alma. The two had five children, four boys and a girl. Alma died when the children, born in nearly successive years, were very young. Harold P. Haughland was child number four and one year old in 1930. Twenty years later, he would be far from the Gallatin, Montana valley, in a place called the Chosin Reservoir. It was there that SFC Harold P. Haugland would merit the Distinguished Service Cross. Here’s part of that citation:
“Early on the morning of 30 November 1950, the enemy renewed the attack against the perimeter. Sergeant Haugland, with complete disregard for his own welfare and safety, wrapped his wounded foot in cloth and using an empty ration box for a shoe, made his way under enemy fire from the aid station to his M-19, where he resumed command and continued to expose himself to enemy fire while commanding the weapon During this action an enemy mortar set fire to the ammunition trailer. In order to direct the driver of the M-19 to an alternate position, Sergeant Haugland, with great valor, in the midst of exploding 40-mm. high explosive shells, coolly walked in front of the vehicle and guided the driver of the gun carriage. As a direct result of his outstanding devotion to duty, his fearless leadership, and his exemplary heroism, his M-19 prevented penetration of the perimeter and killed scores of the enemy.
During that action, SFC Haugland’s fight wound end. His father and siblings would never learn what happened to him or his mortal remains. His sole surviving brother, Ray, died in 2012. Not forgotten. SFC Harold P. Haughland, a hero among heroes. Welcome home.
I was just going to comment that SFC Haughland was likely a member of the much maligned, but ultimately vindicated, Task Force Faith (31st RCT), but I see that you have provided the extraordinary details about the man and his actions. Men such as SFC Haughland protected the world against great evil, it is incumbent upon us to honor and remember their sacrifice.
SFC Haugland was a member of the 31st RCT. His remains came out of an excavation that yielded the partial remains of 32 individuals, 10 of whom have been identified to date. Aside from SFC Haugland, another of the ten was none other than Lt Col Don Faith. At least NK put my Uncle Harry in good company. It is now my mission to see to it that SFC Haugland will be brought home to Montana and laid to rest with all the HONOR and RESPECT that he has earned.
Welcome back home, boys.
Welcome home.
SFC Robert Cummings was from Schoolcraft, Michigan, the third of four children born to the union of Walter and Grace Cummings. Robert was born in 1930 and was all of 19 or 20 years old when he Fell, ambushed while on patrol scouting enemy positions alongside the Yalu river. He is back from that faraway place now. Welcome home.
A 19 or 20 year old Sergeant First Class? Hmmmm.
Be that as it may, welcome home, brothers. Sorry it took this long, rest in peace.
SFC Haughland was 20 or 21. I didn’t look to see whether either SFC was promoted posthumously, which was not uncommon.
Welcome home brothers. Rest in peace in your home soil. God be with your families now.
Welcome home, Brothers. You were gone but never forgotten.