Soldier Accounted For From Korean War (Born, D.)

WASHINGTON  –   The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Pfc. Donald M. Born, 19, of Steubenville, Ohio, killed during the Korean War, was accounted for June 21, 2022.

In July 1950, Born was a member of Company G, 2nd Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. His unit took part in defensive action near Chinju at the southern end of the Korean peninsula. Early in the morning of July 30, the North Korean People’s Army launched a probing attack against Born’s unit, which then withdrew to a new position. He went missing during the attack but was not reported as officially missing in action until a month later. Born was never listed as a prisoner of war, and the Army issued a presumptive finding of death on Dec. 31, 1953.

In January 1951, remains, designated X-220 Masan, were recovered near the village of Pyonggo-ri in the vicinity of Chinju. The remains were initially interred at the U.S. Military Cemetery Masan before being moved to the Central Identification Unit-Kokura in Japan. While examiners thought Born could be associated with X-220, they could not definitively prove it. X-220 was later transported with all of the unidentified Korean War remains and buried as an Unknown at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

In March 2019, during Phase 1 of DPAA’s Korean War Disinterment Project, X-220 was disinterred from the Punchbowl as part of the planned exhumation of all remains originating from the Masan area of the Pusan Perimeter, and transferred to the DPAA Laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii for analysis.

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

Born’s name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are still missing from the Korean War. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Born will be buried Aug. 30, 2022, in Annville, Pennsylvania.

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

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

Born’s personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000000BbK0sEAF.