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News Release

Press Release | Dec. 2, 2021

Soldier Accounted For From Korean War (Stryker, J.)

WASHINGTON  –   The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that Army Sgt. James N. Stryker, 20, of West Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, killed during the Korean War, was accounted for Aug. 5, 2020.

In May 1951, Stryker was a member of Company L, 3rd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action on May 18, when the enemy attacked his unit near Han’gye, South Korea. His remains could not be immediately recovered, but he was not officially declared dead until after the Armistice was signed July 27, 1953.

During a search of Korean War battlefields later in May 1951, an unknown set of remains was recovered from the area where Stryker went missing. After a preliminary examination at Tanggok United Nations Military Cemetery, an identification could not be made and the remains were buried as Unknown X-1373 Tanggok. Further attempts were made to identify X-1373, but were unsuccessful. The remains were later transported with all of the unidentified Korean War remains and buried as Unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

In May 2017, the family of an unresolved Soldier associated with the same area where Stryker went missing requested X-1373 be disinterred for comparison with their Soldier. Further research by a DPAA historian and forensic anthropologist determined X-1373 and the Soldier were unlikely to be associated, but that X-1373 could be associated with Stryker or five other Soldiers. X-1373 was disinterred Aug. 20, 2018, and sent to the DPAA Laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor/Hickam, Hawaii, for analysis.

To identify Stryker’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

Stryker’s name is recorded on the American Battle Monuments Commission’s Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are still missing from the Korean War. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Stryker will be buried in San Antonio, Texas. The date has yet to be determined.

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

To see the most up-to-date statistics on DPAA recovery efforts for those unaccounted for from the Korean War, go to the Korean War fact sheet on the DPAA website at: https://www.dpaa.mil/Resources/Fact-Sheets/Article-View/Article/569610/progress-on-korean-war-personnel-accounting/

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, or find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-pow-mia-accounting-agency.

Stryker’s personnel profile can be viewed at
https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000000kZS5OEAW.