Lindsey, Cpl. Freeman

Sept. 27, 2011

SOLDIER MISSING FROM KOREAN WAR IDENTIFIED

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

Army Cpl. Freeman Lindsey, 20, of Rockport, Ind., will be buried Oct. 1 in Pulaski, Va. On Nov. 29, 1950, he was assigned to 31st Regimental Combat Team in North Korea, when the division came under attack near Kaljon-ri, near the Chosin Reservoir. The unit was forced to withdraw to a more defensible position near Hagaru-ri, south of the reservoir. Following the battle, Lindsey was reported missing in action.

After the 1953 armistice, surviving POWs said Lindsey had been captured by enemy forces in early December 1950, and died of malnutrition in captivity on Feb. 28, 1951. Between 1991 and 1994, North Korea gave the United States 208 boxes of remains believed to contain the remains of 200-400 U.S. servicemen. North Korean documents, turned over with some of the boxes, indicated that some of the human remains were recovered near Kaljon-ri where Lindsey was held as a POW.

Analysts from DPMO and the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command developed case leads with information spanning more than 58 years. Through interviews with surviving POW eyewitnesses, experts validated circumstances surrounding the soldier’s captivity and death, confirming wartime documentation of his loss.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used dental comparisons and mitochondrial DNA – which matched that of Lindsey’s brothers—in the identification of the remains.

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) 699-1169.