An official website of the United States government
Here's how you know
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

News Release

Press Release | Dec. 14, 2011

U.S. Soldier Missing From Korean War Identified (Troche)

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. Maximo A. Troche, 24, of New York, will be buried on Dec. 17, in Hartsdale, N.Y. On Feb. 4, 1951, Troche and soldiers from the I Company, 3rd Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, fought against Communist forces near Yangpyeong, Kyonggi Province, South Korea. After the battle, Troche was listed as missing in action.

Following the end of the Korean War, returned prisoners reported that Troche had been held as a prisoner of war in Suan Bean Camp in North Korea, and died from dysentery sometime in April 1951. In the fall of 1954, during Operation Glory, Communist forces turned over remains of U.S. servicemen who died in the Korean War, but Troche was not included among those remains.

On Dec. 21, 1993, North Korea gave the United Nations Command 34 boxes believed to contain the remains of U.S. servicemen. The remains were recovered from Suan County, North Hwanghae Province, North Korea, which is where Troche had reportedly died as a prisoner of war. In 1996, the remains could not be identified given the technology of the time.

Along with forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and AFDIL used dental records and mitochondrial DNA – which matched that of Troche’s cousins—in the identification of the remains.

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.