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ID Announcements

Press Release | Oct. 31, 2024

Soldier Accounted for from Korean War (Godwin, H.)

WASHINGTON  –  

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that Army Corporal Howard Godwin Jr., 22, of Grafton, West Virginia, killed during the Korean War, was accounted for June 26, 2024.

In July 1950, Godwin was a member of A Company, 1st Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action on July 20 while fighting North Korean forces in the vicinity of Taejon, South Korea. He was never found, nor were any remains recovered that could be identified as Godwin. He was declared non-recoverable in January 1956.

On January 1, 1951, three sets of remains were recovered roughly three miles northwest of Taejon near where Cpl. Godwin’s unit was fighting. Two of the three remains were identified at the time, but investigators could not make a scientific identification of the third. Those remains were designated Unknown X-351 Tanggok and were later transported with all of the unidentified Korean War remains and buried as Unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.

In July 2018, DPAA historians and anthropologists proposed a plan to disinter and identify the 652 Korean War unknown burials from the Punchbowl. X-351 was disinterred July 15, 2019, as part of Phase 1 of the Korean War Identification Project and transferred to the DPAA Laboratory.

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

Godwin’s name is recorded on the American Battle Monument Commission’s 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.

Godwin will be buried in Grafton, West Virginia, on Nov. 15, 2024.

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.

Godwin’s personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000000FJ1woEAD.