WASHINGTON –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced today that U.S. Army Master Sgt. Luther Grace, 34, of Lumber City, Georgia, killed during the Korean War, was accounted for Dec. 18, 2024.
Grace's family recently received their full briefing on his identification, therefore, additional details on his identification can be shared.
In July 1950, Grace was a member of Heavy Mortar Company, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action on Nov. 30 in the vicinity of the Chosin Reservoir, Democratic People's Republic of Korea. There was no evidence that he was held as a prisoner of war. The U.S. Army issued presumptive finding of death of 31 December 1953.
In 1954, the United Nations Command and the Chinese Communist Forces exchanged the remains of fallen service personnel in an effort named Operation GLORY. Grace’s remains could not be identified by the Central Identification Unit Laboratory at Kokura, Japan at the time, and were designated Unknown X-15760. In 1956, all of the unidentified Korean War remains, including Unknown X-15760 were transferred, as Unknowns, to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.
In July 2018, DPAA researchers and anthropologists proposed a plan to disinter and identify the 652 Korean War unknown burials from the Punchbowl. Unknown X-15760 was disinterred March 29, 2021, during phase three of the Korean War Disinterment Project and transferred to the DPAA Laboratory.
To identify Grace’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 analysis.
Grace’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.
Grace will be buried in Lumber City, Georgia, 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 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 their country, visit the DPAA website at or on social media at , , , or .
Read Grace's initial ID announcement here: Grace.