Remains of Warren Korean War MIA Army veteran identified
WARREN
The remains of a Warren Korean War Army veteran, Pfc. James R. Holmes, who was declared missing in action Dec. 1, 1950, have been identified and will be buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery on May 29.
Holmes, 18, was serving with Co. K, 3rd Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, when he was lost Dec. 1 in North Korea.
He was accounted for on Jan. 14, 2014, according to a posting Wednesday by the Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office on its web site.
According to the DOD, in November 1950, Holmes’s unit was pushing north through North Korea to the Yalu River. In late November, the unit was attacked by enemy forces and withdrew south to the town of Anju. He was declared MIA on Dec. 1.
Information about Holmes first came about as part of a 1953 prisoner exchange known as Operation Big Switch. Returning service members reported that Holmes had been captured by the Chinese during that battle and died in 1951 in a prisoner-of-war camp known as Camp 5, near Pyoktong, North Korea.
Between 1991 and 1994, North Korea gave the United States 208 boxes of human remains believed to contain 350 to 400 U.S. servicemen who fought during the war. North Korean documents turned over with some of the boxes indicated that some of the remains were recovered from Pyoktong County, near the area where Holmes was believed to have died.
To identify Holmes’ remains, scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools, including mitochondrial DNA, which matched his sister and brother.
Today, 7,883 Americans remain unaccounted-for from the Korean War. Using modern technology, identifications continue to be made from remains that were previously turned over by North Korean officials or recovered from North Korea by American teams, the DOD reported.