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 with full military honors.
Army Sgt. 1st Class Charles A. Roy, 42, of Henderson, Ky., will be returned to his family
on Jan. 17, for a memorial ceremony in Blue Springs, Mo. On Nov. 5, 1950, Roy was reported
missing in action after his unit, Battery A, 61st Field Artillery Battalion, was overrun by Chinese
forces near Pakchon, North Korea. In August 1953, several returned U.S. prisoners of war
reported Roy had been captured by Chinese forces, and died in April 1951 from malnutrition and
lack of medical care while in the prisoner of war camp known as “Camp 5,” near the
Chinese/North Korean border.
In 1954, communist forces returned the remains of more than 3,000 U.S. servicemen who
had died in POW camps, and on the battle field, in what was called “Operation Glory.” Given the
technology of the times, Roy, and many other men, were not able to be identified, and their
remains were buried as “unknown” in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in
Honolulu.
In 2009, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) re-examined Roy’s records
and concluded that because of advances in identification technology, the remains could be
exhumed and identified. Along with forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence,
scientists from JPAC used radiograph records in the identification of the remains.
Today, more than 7,900 Americans remain unaccounted-for from the Korean War.
Identifications continue to be made from the remains that were returned to the United States,
using forensic and DNA technology.
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.