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Vet seeks families of lost soldiers
3 from Valley on list of Korean War MIAs
YOUNGSTOWN — An Army combat veteran who came back safely from the Korean War is trying to locate families of those who didn’t return, including three from the Mahoning Valley.
Harold G. Davis of Wilmington, N.C., said he works with other Korean War veterans to locate families so they can give DNA samples to the government to have on file to match the remains of soldiers it has found or might find. The DNA has to come from someone related to the mother of the soldier, he said.
Davis said that over the past five years, he and his fellow Korean War veterans have located 400 to 500 families whose names the government did not have.
Davis emphasized that his group does not hunt for and find remains — that is the government’s job — and that the remains of the soldiers listed below may or may not be on file with the Joint Prisoners of War, Missing in Action Accounting Command (JPAC).
At present, Davis said there are 66 families of MIAs from Ohio whom the Department of Defense has not located, including three men who listed Mahoning or Trumbull counties as their place of birth. They are:
Mahoning County
JOSEPH CARROLL CARTER
Born: Jan. 28, 1928.
Date of loss: Sept. 6, 1950, killed in action.
Service Number: RA15278948
Unit: G Co., 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division.
PETER KITT
Born: July 30, 1931.
Date of loss: July 27, 1950, missing in action.
Service Number: RA 15279751
Unit: K Co., 29th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division.
Trumbull County
JAMES ROY HOLMES
Born: 1932
Date of loss: Dec. 1, 1950, prisoner of war.
Service Number: RA15297539
Unit: K Co., 24th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division.
“It could have happened to me,” said Davis, when asked why he searches for families of dead and missing soldiers.
“I got to thinking about it. Those poor souls over there are completely forgotten by the government, which quickly declared them deceased. That was wrong, because then they quit looking,” said Davis, 78, who mustered out of the Army as a sergeant first class.
“You’ve never heard of any war trials out of Korea, and there were many atrocities there. I feel this is all we can do. If I was still over there, I would certainly want someone to do something for me. I have a very deep feeling about it,” he said.
He was drafted into the Army in 1952 and got out in 1953. In Korea, he served in Heavy Motor Co., 224th Infantry Regiment, 40th Infantry Division. Although he was on the line most of the time, he was not wounded. He did get frostbite, which he said “still bothers me. The older you get, the worse it gets.”
Davis and his wife, Alida, have two grown sons.
“When we find the families, we turn their names over to the Army Casualty Office,” he said.
“We started this thing in 2002 by asking the government for a list of names of missing families of POWs and MIAs out of the Korean War. I feel we have the most complete list of people with whom the government has no contact and no DNA,” Davis said.
If any family members of the soldiers listed still live in this area, or if anyone has information about their families, they can call Davis at (910) 791-2333 or e-mail him at hgdavis@bellsouth.net.
They can also get information by calling the Army Casualty Office toll-free at (800) 892-2490 or JPAC at (866) 913-1286.
“I’m just an old combat veteran out of the Korean War and thankful that I did return. My philosophy is, I can’t do anything about the government. I just do what I can to find these families.” Davis said.
alcorn@vindy.com