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 Pfc. James C. Mullins, 20, of Dunham, Ky., will be buried on Nov. 2, near Fort
Bragg, N.C. On July 22, 1950, Mullins and his unit, H Company, 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry
Regiment, battled enemy forces near Yugong-ni, South Korea. After the battle, Mullins was
listed as missing in action.
In 1951, remains of nine unidentified U.S. service members, from the battlefield near
Yugong-ni, were buried as “unknown” in Pusan Cemetery. Later that year, the U.S. consolidated
cemeteries on the Korean peninsula. The unknown remains were re-interred at the National
Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii—the “Punchbowl.”
In 2012, due to advances in identification technology, analysts from DPMO and Joint
POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) reevaluated the information associated with the
remains interred in Hawaii and concluded that if exhumed they could likely be identified. Based
on available evidence such as metal identification tags, military clothing, and wartime records,
analysts confirmed that the remains were a soldier who died at Yugong-ni.
To determine Mullins identification, scientists from JPAC used the circumstantial
evidence and forensic identification tools including radiograph and dental comparisons.
For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing
Americans, visit the DPMO web site at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call (703) 699-1169.