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News Release

Press Release | Dec. 14, 2018

Soldier Accounted For From Korean War (Coons, F.)

WASHINGTON  –   The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that Army Cpl. Frederick E. Coons, 22, of Fairview Township, Missouri, killed during the Korean War, was accounted for on Oct. 29, 2018.

In July 1950, Coons was a member of Company A, 1st Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. On July 29, 1950, Coons was declared missing action in the vicinity of Geochang, South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea, when he couldn’t be accounted for after a unit withdrawal action to set up a roadblock against North Korean Forces.

On Feb. 23, 1952, the 565th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company recovered three sets of remains from a shallow, temporary grave near the village of Apkong-ni, South Korea. The remains, designated X-5272, X-5273 and X-5274, were transferred to the United Nations Military Cemetery in Tanggok for temporary burial. The remains were then sent to the Central Identification Unit in Kokura, Japan, for identification.

One set of remains, X-5272 was declared unidentifiable and were transferred to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu for burial.

On March 12, 2018, DPAA disinterred Unknown X-5272 from the Punchbowl for identification.

To identify Coons’ remains, scientists from DPAA and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis, dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial and material evidence.

DPAA is grateful to the Department of Veterans Affairs for their partnership in this mission.

Today, 7,675 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War. Using modern technology, identifications continue to be made from remains that were previously returned by North Korean officials or recovered from North Korea by American recovery teams. Coons’ name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, along with the others who are missing from the Korean War. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

For family contact information, contact the Army Casualty office at (800) 892-2490.

Coons will be buried April 24, 2019, in Leavenworth, Kansas.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or call (703) 699-1420/1169.

Coons’ personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000007Whx1EAC