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

Release No: 18-236 Dec. 14, 2018
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WASHINGTON — The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that Army Sgt. 1st Class James L. Boyce, 21, of Carnegie, Pennsylvania, killed during the Korean War, was accounted for on Sept. 26, 2018.

In July 1950, Boyce was a member of Company K, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, engaged in combat operations against the North Korean People’s Army south of Chonui, South Korea. Boyce could not be accounted-for and was declared missing in action on July 11, 1950.

In December 1953, based on a lack of information regarding his status, Boyce was declared deceased.

On October 7, 1950, a set of remains was recovered from an isolated grave in the vicinity of Choch’iwon, South Korea. The remains, unable to be identified, were designated as Unknown X-170 and were buried in the Taejon United Nations Military Cemetery. In 1951, the graves at Taejon were exhumed and the unknowns were transferred to the Army’s Central Identification Unit in Kokura, Japan. Again, X-170 could not be identified and the remains were subsequently buried as an Unknown in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.

On Oct. 16, 2017, Unknown X-170 was disinterred from the Punchbowl and sent to the DPAA laboratory for analysis.

To identify Boyce’s remains, scientists from DPAA and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis, dental, anthropological and chest radiograph comparison analysis, as well as and circumstantial and material evidence.

DPAA is grateful to 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. Boyce’s name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific 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 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.

Boyce’s personnel profile can be viewed at
https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000007kTQCEA2