WASHINGTON –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Cpl. Dewey E. Rewis Jr., 18, of Waycross, Georgia, who died as a prisoner of war during the Korean War, was accounted for Oct. 25, 2022.
In late 1950, Rewis was a member of Battery D, 15th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion, 31st Regimental Combat Team, 7th Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action on Dec. 2, 1950, after his unit were advancing along the eastern banks of the Chosin Reservoir, in North Korea, when they came under attack. In 1953, four POWs returned during Operation Big Switch reported Rewis had been a prisoner of war and died in March 1951 at an area called Death Valley; it was not an established POW Camp but a collection point for United Nations prisoners.
In the late summer and fall of 1954, during Operation Glory, North Korea returned remains reportedly recovered in an area north of the Chosin Reservoir known as Death Valley, to the United Nations Command (UNC). However, Rewis’ name did not appear on any of the transfer rosters and the Central Identification Unit in Kokura, Japan, did not associate any repatriated remains with him. Rewis was determined to be non-recoverable on Jan. 16, 1956.
On Dec. 1, 1993, North Korea turned over 33 boxes of remains to the UNC, which sent them to the Central Identification Lab in Hawaii to undergo forensic analysis. In 2007 one of the three sets of remains was identified as a 31st RCT soldier killed near the Chosin Reservoir.
To identify Rewis’ remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), and Y chromosome (Y-STR), analysis.
Rewis’ 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.
Rewis, will be buried in Echols County, Georgia on a date yet 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.