The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced today that U.S. Army Sgt. Orace J. Mestas, 22, of Trinidad, Colorado, killed during the Korean War, was accounted for Jan. 31, 2024.
Mestas's family recently received their full briefing on his identification, therefore, additional details on his identification can be shared.
In April 1951, Mestas was assigned to I Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action near Chip’o-ri, North Korea, after his unit’s position was attacked on April 25. The U.S. Army determined him to be nonrecoverable on Jan. 16, 1956.
In April 1951, members from the 565th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company recovered remains about 8.5 miles southeast of Chipo-ri and designated one set as Unknown X-1381 Tanggok. In 1955 those remains were transferred to the Central Identification Unit (CIU) in Kokura, Japan for reprocessing. After the remains were reexamined by the CIU, Unknown X-1381 could not be identified. The remains were subsequently buried as an unknown in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.
In July 2018, DPAA proposed a plan to disinter 652 Korean War Unknowns interred at the Punchbowl. In March 2019, DPAA personnel disinterred Unknown X-1381 as part of Phase One of the Korean War Disinterment Plan and sent the remains to the DPAA laboratory for analysis.
To identify Unknown X-1381 as Mestas, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as chest radiograph and other circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA analysis.
Mestas’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.
Mestas will be buried in Trinidad, Colorado, in June 2025.
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 their country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil or on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa, https://www.linkedin.com/company/dodpaa, https://www.instagram.com/dodpaa/, or https://x.com/dodpaa.
Mestas’s personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt00000001UzTEAU.
Read Mestas's initial ID announcement here: Mestas.