Thursday, June 16, 2011

MIA Korean War Soldier Identified

Army Cpl. A.V. Scott, 27, of Detroit, Mich., will be buried June 22 at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. On Feb. 12, 1951, Scott's unit, the 503rd Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division, was supplying friendly forces approximately 70 miles east of Seoul, South Korea, when Chinese Communist units attacked the area and forced a withdrawal. Scott was captured by enemy forces and marched north to a prisoner-of-war camp in Suan County, North Korea. Surviving POWs within the camp reported Scott died in April 1951.

Between 1991 and 1994, North Korea gave the United States 208 boxes of remains believed to contain the remains of 200 to 400 U.S. servicemen. North Korean documents turned over with one of the boxes indicated the remains were exhumed near Suan County, which correlates with Scott's last known location.

Among forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command used dental comparisons, and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used mitochondrial DNA, which matched that of Scott's cousins, in the identification.

More than 2,000 servicemen died as prisoners of war during the Korean War. With this identification, 7,993 service members remain missing from the conflict.

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