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ID Announcements

Press Release | July 28, 2023

Soldier Accounted For From Korean War (Miller, J.)

WASHINGTON   –  

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Pfc. James L. Miller, 21, of Detroit, Michigan, killed during the Korean War, was accounted for Nov. 28, 2022.

In late 1950, Miller was a member of K Company, 3rd Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. Miller and the 24th Infantry Regiment took part in the unsuccessful defense of the town of Sangju in July 1950. He was reported killed in action on July 30, while fighting with the North Korean forces. Following the battle, his remains could not be recovered, and there is no evidence that he was ever a prisoner of war. Miller was declared nonrecoverable on Jan. 16, 1956.

After regaining control of Sanju in the fall of 1950, the Army began recovering remains from the area and temporarily interring them at the United Nations Military Cemetery (UNMC) Taejon. One set of remains recovered during this period was designated Unknown X-5156. After extensive analysis by the Central Identification Unit-Kokura in Japan was unable to identify X-5156, the remains were declared unidentifiable. They were later sent to Hawaii where they were buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, with other Korean War Unknowns.

In July 2018, the DPAA proposed a plan to disinter 652 Korean War Unknowns from the Punchbowl. On Nov. 4, 2019, the DPAA disinterred Unknown X-5156 as part of Phase Two of the Korean War Disinterment Project and sent the remains to the DPAA laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, for analysis.

To identify Miller’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental, anthropological analysis as well as chest radiograph comparison.. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

Miller’s name is recorded on the American Battle Monuments Commission’s Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, along with the others who are still missing from the Korean War. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Miller will be buried in Holly, Michigan, on a date to be determined.

For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.

To see the most up-to-date statistics on DPAA recovery efforts for those unaccounted for from the Korean War, go to the Korean War Accounting page on the DPAA website at: https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaFamWebKorean.

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 find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa  or https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-pow-mia-accounting-agency.

Miller’s personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000000nsBi7EAE.