WASHINGTON –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Sgt. Alfred H. Sidney, 23, of Littleton, New Hampshire who was killed during the Korean War, was accounted for Aug. 23, 2022.
In May 1951, Sidney was a member of H Company, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action on May 18, after his unit was attacked near Hangye, South Korea. In 1953, a POW who returned during Operation Little Switch reported Sidney had been a prisoner of war and died in July 1951 at Prisoner of War Camp #1.
In the late summer and fall of 1954, during Operation Glory, North Korea returned remains reportedly recovered Prisoner of War Camp #1 to the United Nations Command. None were associated with Sidney.
One set of remains disinterred from Camp #1 returned during Operation Glory was designated Unknown X-14144 and buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.
In July 2018, the DPAA proposed a plan to disinter 652 Korean War Unknowns from the Punchbowl. In February 2020, the DPAA disinterred Unknown X-14144 as part of Phase Two of the Korean War Disinterment Plan and sent the remains to the DPAA laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, for analysis.
To identify Sidney’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as chest radiograph comparison and circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.
Sidney’s name is recorded on the American Battle Monuments Commission’s 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.
Sidney will be buried at Littleton, New Hampshire, on a date to be determined.
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 Accounting page on the DPAA website at: https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaFamWebKorean.
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.
Sidney’s personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt00000004o0wEAA.