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.
He is Cpl. Clem R. Boody, U.S. Army, of Independence, Iowa. His burial date and
location are being set by his family.
Representatives from the Army met with Boody’s next-of-kin to explain the recovery and
identification process, and to coordinate interment with military honors on behalf of the Secretary
of the Army.
In November 1950, Boody was assigned to Headquarters Company, 8th Cavalry Regiment,
1st Cavalry Division then occupying a defensive position near Unsan, North Korea north of a bend
in the Kuryong River known as the Camel’s Head. On Nov. 1, parts of two Chinese Communist
Divisions struck the 1st Cavalry Division’s lines, collapsing the perimeter and forcing a
withdrawal. Boody was reported missing on Nov. 2, 1950 and was one of the more than 350
servicemen unaccounted-for from the battle at Unsan.
In April 2007, the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea (D.P.R.K.), acting
through the intermediary of New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and former U.S. Secretary of
Veterans Affairs Anthony Principi, repatriated to the United States six boxes of human remains
believed to be those of U.S. soldiers. The D.P.R.K. reported that the remains were excavated in
November 2006 near Unsan in North Pyongan Province.
Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from
JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA and
dental comparisons in the identification of Boody’s remains.
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.