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ID Announcements

Press Release | Aug. 31, 2023

Soldier Accounted for from Korean War (Baty, W.)

WASHINGTON  –  

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Sgt. Willie J. Baty, 20, of Mexia, Texas, killed during the Korean War, was accounted for Feb. 8, 2023.

In the fall of 1950, Baty was a member of L Company, 3rd Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action on Sept. 14 when his unit was forced to withdraw from the Masan area of the Pusan Perimeter, South Korea. Following the battle, his remains could not be recovered, and there is no evidence that he was ever a prisoner of war. The Army issued a presumptive finding of death on Dec. 31, 1953, and his remains were determined to be nonrecoverable on Jan. 16, 1956.

The U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps (AGRSG) was responsible for recovering, identifying, and repatriating those lost during the Korean War.  In late 1950 they recovered a set remains designated as Unknown X-159 near Masan. After extensive analysis by the Central Identification Unit-Kokura in Japan was unable to identify X-159 the remains were declared unidentifiable. In Dec. 1950, the remains 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. In March 2019, DPAA disinterred X-159 as part of Phase One of the Korean War Disinterment Plan and sent the remains to the DPAA laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, for analysis.

To identify Baty’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental, isotope and anthropological analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

Baty’s name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, 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.

Baty will be buried in Dallas, Texas, on Sept. 15, 2023.

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 fact sheet on the DPAA website at: https://www.dpaa.mil/Resources/Fact-Sheets/Article-View/Article/569610/progress-on-korean-war-personnel-accounting/.

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 https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-pow-mia-accounting-agency.

Baty’s personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000000RcjSSEAZ.