Korean War Soldiers Missing in Action are Identified

The Army soldiers are Captain Edward B. Scullion and Private first-class Elwood D. Reynolds, both of Virginia.

Soldiers and Marines fought bitterly on the Chosin Peninsula in North Korea, today the country is helping us recover our dead who never took the final trip home. Photo courtesy: koreanwar-educator.org

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced today that the remains of two U.S. servicemen, missing from the Korean War, have been identified and will be returned to their families for burial with full military honors. They are Captain Edward B. Scullion of Norfolk, Virginia; and Private first-class Elwood D. Reynolds of Schoolfield, Virginia; both U.S. Army. Pfc Reynolds will be buried April 18th in Danville, Virginia, and Captain Scullion will be buried this summer in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C.

Representatives from the Army met with the soldier's next-of-kin to explain the recovery and identification process, and to coordinate interment with military honors on behalf of the Secretary of the Army.

Both men were members of A Company, 32nd Infantry Regiment, then attached to the 31st Regimental Combat Team (RCT), 7th Infantry Division.

The team was engaged against the Chinese People's Volunteer Forces near the Chosin Reservoir, North Korea, from November 27th through December 1st, 1050. Both soldiers died in late November as result of intense enemy fire, but their bodies were not recovered at the time.

Between 2002 and 2005, joint U.S. and Democratic People's Republic of Korea teams, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), conducted excavations of three burial sites near the Chosin Reservoir.

The sites correlate closely with defensive positions held by the 31st RCT at the time of the Chinese attacks. The teams recovered remains there believed to be those of several other U.S. servicemen. Analysis of the remains recovered from the sites led to the identification of 10 individuals, including Ed Scullion and Elwood Reynolds.

They say that among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory and JPAC also used mitochondrial DNA and dental comparisons in both Captain Scullion's and Pfc Reynolds' identification.