Soldier Accounted For From Korean War (Taylor, J.)

WASHINGTON  –   The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, accounted-for from the Korean War, are those of Army Pfc. John A. Taylor, 22, of Winnsboro, Louisiana. Taylor was accounted for on May 9, 2018.

In August 1950, Taylor was a member of Company C, 2nd Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division in South Korea. On Aug. 11, his regiment encountered a Korean People’s Army unit near the village of Haman. Taylor’s company was ordered to move southwest, where they were ambushed and forced to disperse. In the days following, the battalions of 24th Infantry Regiment consolidated their positions, reorganized and began accounting for their Soldiers. After several days of checking adjoining units, aid stations and field hospitals, Taylor was reported as killed in action on Aug. 12, 1950, but his remains were not recovered.

On Jan. 6, 1951, an Army Graves Registration Service search and recovery team recovered a set of unidentified remains near the village of Haman. The remains, which could not be identified, were interred in United States Military Cemetery Masan in South Korea, as Unknown X-213 Masan.

In February 1954, the Central Identification Unit in Kokura, Japan, examined Unknown X-213 Masan. Unable to make an identification, the remains were declared unidentifiable in April 1955 and buried as an Unknown in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.

In 2016, research into unresolved losses and unknowns remains from the Korean War led researchers to conclude that Unknown X-213 could likely be identified. The unknown had been recovered in the area where Taylor went missing. DPAA disinterred Unknown X-213 in June 2017 and sent the remains to the laboratory for analysis.

To identify Taylor’s remains, scientists from DPAA used as dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence.

DPAA is grateful to the Department of Veterans Affairs for their partnership in this mission.

Today, 7,675 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War. Using modern technology, identifications continue to be made from remains that were previously returned by North Korean officials or recovered from North Korea by American recovery teams. Taylor’s name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the NMCP in Honolulu along with the others who are missing from the Korean War. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

For family contact information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.

Taylor will be buried July 30, 2019, in Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington, D.C.

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 call (703) 699-1420/1169.

Taylor’s personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt00000133sAaEAI