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News Release

Press Release | Sept. 23, 2021

Soldier Accounted For From Korean War (Fabrize, D.)

WASHINGTON  –   The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that Army Pvt. Donald A. Fabrize, 17, of Cayuga, New York, killed during the Korean War, was accounted for Sept. 21, 2020.

In July 1950, Fabrize was a member of Company B, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was reported killed in action on July 16 during battle defending, then withdrawing from, positions along the Kum River in South Korea. His remains could not be immediately located or recovered. The Army deemed Fabrize non-recoverable on Jan. 16, 1956.

A set of remains, designated Unknown X-36 Taejon, buried in the United Nations Military Cemetery (UNMC) at Taejon, in the vicinity of the Kum River, sometime between July and September 1950 was repeatedly examined during and just after the war to attempt an identification, but ultimately was designated unidentifiable. 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 July 2018, DPAA historians and anthropologists proposed a plan to disinter and identify the 652 Korean War unknown burials from the Punchbowl, including 53 recovered from the UNMC Taejon and Taejon area. X-36 was disinterred July 16, 2019, as part of the Korean War Identification Project, and transferred to the DPAA Laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii.

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

Fabrize’s name is recorded on the 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.

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

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

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.

Fabrize’s personnel profile can be viewed at
https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000004PGPfEAO.