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News Release

Press Release | Jan. 15, 2014

Soldier Missing From Korean War Identified (McIntyre)

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) 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. Billy M. McIntyre, 19, of Carter, Okla., will be laid to rest Jan. 17, in Oklahoma City. In late November 1950, McIntyre and elements of the 31st Regimental Combat Team (RCT), historically known as Task Force Faith, were deployed along the eastern banks of the Chosin Reservoir near Sinhung-ri, North Korea. McIntyre was reportedly killed in action on Dec. 7, 1950, after his unit was engaged by a vastly superior number of enemy forces.

Between 1991 and 1994, North Korea gave the United States 208 boxes believed to contain the remains of 200-400 U.S. service members. North Korean documents, turned over with some of the boxes, indicated that some of the human remains were recovered from the area where McIntyre was last seen.

In the identification of the remains, scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools, including dental comparisons and mitochondrial DNA – which matched McIntyre’s sister and niece.

Using modern technology, identifications continue to be made from remains that were previously turned over by North Korean officials. Today, 7,896 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO web site at www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call (703) 699-1169.