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News Release

Press Release | April 1, 2016

Soldier Missing From Korean War Accounted For (Henderson)

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 Pfc. Roy A. Henderson, 18, of Newark, Ohio, will be buried April 8 in Follansbee, West Virginia. On July 27, 1950, Henderson was assigned to Company B, 1st Battalion, 29th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, when his unit set up a defensive position near Anui, South Korea, in an attempt to stop invading North Korean forces. The troops were forced to withdraw south, and found the road blocked. This required Henderson’s company to abandon most of its equipment and withdraw over mountains to friendly lines. Following the withdrawal, Henderson was reported missing. He was subsequently declared deceased on Dec. 31, 1953.

In October 1950, 60 sets of remains from Anui were sent to the Army Graves Registration Service mortuary in Kokura, Japan. Fifty-seven sets of those remains were resolved, but three sets, including Unknown X-218, were declared “unidentifiable” and were interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii.

In October 2014, the Disinterment Cell of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (now DPAA), determined that dental, anthropological and historical evidence indicated it was highly probably that Unknown X-218 could be identified during a reanalysis of the remains. The remains were exhumed May 18, 2015.

In the identification of Henderson’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and chest radiography comparison analyses, which matched Henderson’s records, as well as circumstantial and material evidence, and anthropological analysis.

Today, 7,819 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 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 or call (703) 699-1420.