Soldier Accounted For From Korean War (Clevenger, L.)

WASHINGTON  –   The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that Army Cpl. Leon E. Clevenger, 21, of Durham, North Carolina, killed during the Korean War, was accounted for Sept. 9, 2019.

In the summer of 1950, Clevenger was an infantryman with Company K, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action on July 11, 1950, while involved in combat operations against the North Korean People’s Army in the vicinity of Chonui and Choch’iwon, South Korea. The Army amended his status to deceased in December 1953 when there was no updated information regarding his status.

In November 1951, a U.S. Army Graves Registration Team recovered the remains of an unidentified American near the village of Kalgo-ri, approximately three miles from Clevenger’s last known location. The remains were taken to the United States Military Cemetery Tanggok for possible identification, and were later sent to the Central Identification Unit at Kokura, Japan, as Unknown X-2258 Tanggok for further processing. The remains, which could not be identified, were subsequently buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.

In December 2018, the Department of Defense disinterred X-2258 and sent the remains to the DPAA laboratory for analysis.

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

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

Clevenger’s name is recorded on the American Battle Monuments Commission's Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl 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 information, contact the Army Service Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.

Clevenger will be buried Dec. 11, 2021, in his hometown.

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 fact sheet on the DPAA website at: https://www.dpaa.mil/Resources/Fact-Sheets/Article-View/Article/569610/progress-on-korean-war-personnel-accounting/

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, or find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-pow-mia-accounting-agency.

Clevenger’s personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt00000089X22EAE