Evans, Cpl. Harold A.

Sept. 30, 2013

SOLDIER MISSING FROM KOREAN WAR ACCOUNTED FOR

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing from the Korean War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Army Cpl. Harold A. Evans, 22, of Linsell, Minn., will be buried Oct. 12, in Thief River Falls, Minn. In late 1950, Evans was a member of the Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 31st Regimental Combat Team, which was deployed east of the Chosin Reservoir near Sinhung-ri, South Hamgyong Province, North Korea. After engaging in a battle with enemy forces east of the Chosin Reservoir, members of the 31st RCT, historically known as Task Force Faith, began a fighting withdrawal to a more defensible position. Following the battle, Evans was reported missing on Dec. 12, 1950.

Between 1991 and 1994, North Korea gave the United States 208 boxes of human remains believed to contain the remains of 350 – 400 U.S. servicemen. North Korean documents, turned over with some of the boxes, indicated that some of the remains were recovered from the area where Evans was believed to have died in 1950, near the Chosin Reservoir.

To identify Evans’ remains, scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools, such as dental comparison, radiograph comparisons and DNA analysis. Two forms of DNA were used to identify Evans, Mitochondrial DNA, which matched his sister, and Y-STR DNA, which matched his brother.

Today, more than 7,900 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War. Using modern technology, identifications continue to be made from remains that were previously turned over by North Korean officials.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO web site at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call (703) 699-1127.