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News Release

Press Release | July 22, 2013

Soldier Missing From Korean War Identified (Moyer)

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing from the Korean War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Army Cpl. Glyndon E. Moyer, 18, of Luray, Va., will be buried July 25, in his hometown. In late November 1950, Moyer and elements of the 31st Regimental Combat Team (RCT) were deployed along the east of the Chosin Reservoir near Sinhung-ri, South Hamgyong Province, in North Korea. On Dec. 1, 1950 remnants of the 31st RCT, known historically as Task Force Faith, began a fighting withdrawal to a more defensible position near the Hagaru-ri, south of the reservoir when he was reported missing Dec. 2, 1950.

Between 1991 and 1994, North Korea gave the United States 208 boxes of remains believed to contain the remains of 200-400 U.S. service members. North Korean documents, turned over with some of the boxes, indicated that some of the human remains were recovered from the area where Moyer was last seen.

In the identification of Moyer, scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) used circumstantial evidence, and forensic identification tools such as dental comparisons, mitochondrial DNA – which matched Moyer’s sister and brother.

Using modern technology, identifications continue to be made from remains that were previously turned over by North Korean officials. Today, more than 7,900 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War.

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.