Washington –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Pvt. 1st Class (Pfc.) Anthony J. Lopa, 17, of North Arlington, New Jersey, who was killed during the Korean War, was accounted for July 21, 2023.
In July 1950, Lopa was a member of Delta Battery, 82nd Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons (Self Propelled) Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was killed in action fighting the North Korean People’s Army along the Naktong River, in the vicinity of Yongsan-Myeon, South Korea, on August 31, 1950. Due to the intense fighting in the region, his body could not be recovered at that time.
A set of remains was recovered near Amp’yong, South Korea, in March 1951. They could not be initially identified and were designated X-2023 C Tanggok, and buried in the United Nations Cemetery Tanggok later that month. In August 1951, the Central Identification Unit Kokura in Japan began a reexamination of X-2023 C. They made several attempts between then and August 1954 before ultimately declaring the remains unidentifiable. All 848 unidentified sets of Korean War remains at CIU-Kokura were sent to Hawaii in 1956 where they were 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 May 2021, DPAA disinterred Unknown X-2023 C as part of Phase Two of the Korean War Disinterment Project and sent the remains to the DPAA laboratory for analysis.
To identify Lopa’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.
Lopa’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.
Pfc. Lopa will be buried in Wrightstown, New Jersey, 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, find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-pow-mia-accounting-agency.
Lopa’s personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt00000120sUtEAI