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News Release

Press Release | Sept. 19, 2016

Soldier Missing From Korean War Accounted For (Brown)

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing from the Korean War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.


Army Master Sgt. Charles J. Brown, Jr., 20, of Ozone Park, New York, will be buried Sept. 26 in Sarasota, Florida. In early November 1950, Brown was a member of Company L, 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, when the Chinese People’s Volunteer Forces (CPVF) attacked the regiment and forced the unit to withdraw to the village of Ipsok, approximately five miles south of Unsan. The survivors attempted to set up a defensive perimeter, but many soldiers became surrounded and attempted to escape and evade the enemy, but the majority were captured and marched to POW camps.


Brown’s name did not appear on any POW list provided by the CPVF or the Korean People’s Army, nor did any repatriated American POWs have any information about Brown. Based on this information, a military review board amended his status to deceased in 1953.


Between 1990 and 1994, North Korea returned to the United States 208 boxes of commingled human remains, which when combined with remains recovered during joint recovery operations in North Korea between 1996 and 2005, included the remains of at least 600 U.S. servicemen who fought during the war. North Korean documents included in the repatriation indicated that some of the remains were recovered from the vicinity where Brown was believed to have died.


To identify Brown’s remains, scientists from DPAA and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used mitochondrial, Y-chromosome Short Tandem Repeat and autosomal DNA analysis, which matched his sister, as well as dental and anthropological analyses, and circumstantial evidence.


Today, 7,795 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War. Using modern technology, identifications continue to be made from remains that were previously returned by North Korean officials or recovered from North Korea by American recovery teams.


For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or call (703) 699-1420.