The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today
that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing from the Korean War, have been identified and
will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.
Army Cpl. Harold A. Evans, 22, of Linsell, Minn., will be buried Oct. 12, in Thief River
Falls, Minn. In late 1950, Evans was a member of the Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 31st
Regimental Combat Team, which was deployed east of the Chosin Reservoir near Sinhung-ri,
South Hamgyong Province, North Korea. After engaging in a battle with enemy forces east of the
Chosin Reservoir, members of the 31st RCT, historically known as Task Force Faith, began a
fighting withdrawal to a more defensible position. Following the battle, Evans was reported
missing on Dec. 12, 1950.
Between 1991 and 1994, North Korea gave the United States 208 boxes of human remains
believed to contain the remains of 350 - 400 U.S. servicemen. North Korean documents, turned
over with some of the boxes, indicated that some of the remains were recovered from the area
where Evans was believed to have died in 1950, near the Chosin Reservoir.
To identify Evans’ remains, scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command
(JPAC) and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used circumstantial evidence and
forensic identification tools, such as dental comparison, radiograph comparisons and DNA
analysis. Two forms of DNA were used to identify Evans, Mitochondrial DNA, which matched
his sister, and Y-STR DNA, which matched his brother.
Today, more than 7,900 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War. Using
modern technology, identifications continue to be made from remains that were previously turned
over by North Korean officials.
For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing
Americans, visit the DPMO web site at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call (703) 699-1127.