The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced today that the
remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from the Korean War, have been identified and
will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.
He is Pfc. Domenico S. Di Salvo, U.S. Marine Corps, of Akron, Ohio. He will be buried
July 12 in Seville, Ohio.
In late November 1950, Di Salvo was a member of Company F, 2nd Battalion, 5th
Regiment, of the 1st Marine Division then deployed near Yudam-ni on the western side of the
Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. On Nov. 27, three Communist Chinese Divisions launched an
attack on the Marine positions. Over the next several days, U.S. forces staged a fighting
withdrawal to the south. Di Salvo was lost on Dec. 2, 1950 as a result of enemy action near
Yudam-ni. He was among several in his company buried by fellow Marines in a temporary grave
near the battlefield.
During Operation Glory in 1954, the North Korean government repatriated the remains of
U.S. and allied soldiers. Included in this repatriation were sets of remains associated with Di
Salvo’s burial. That year, U.S. officials identified five of these individuals. One repatriated
individual could not be identified at that time and was buried as an unknown in the National
Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (The Punchbowl) in Hawaii.
In November 2006, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) exhumed remains
from the NMCP believed to be those of Di Salvo.
Among other forensic tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from the JPAC used
dental comparisons in Di Salvo’s identification.
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) 699-1169.