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Shaffer
10-28-02, 03:37 PM
Remains believed to be those of 11 American soldiers missing in
action from the Korean War will be repatriated Tuesday in North
Korea.

The remains will be flown aboard a U.S. Air Force aircraft from
Pyongyang, North Korea, under escort of a uniformed U.S. honor
guard, to Yokota Air Base, Japan, where a formal U.N. Command
repatriation ceremony will be held.

A joint team operating near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea
recovered remains believed to be those of U.S. Army soldiers
from the 7th Infantry Division who fought against Chinese forces
November-December 1950. The recovery teams were composed
primarily of specialists from the Army's Central Identification
Laboratory Hawaii (CILHI).

A second CILHI team recovered remains in Unsan county, about 60
miles north of Pyongyang. The area was the site of battles
between Communist forces and the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry and
25th Infantry Divisions in November 1950. Approximately 1,000
Americans are estimated to have been lost in battles of the
Chosin campaign.

The Defense Department's Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel
Office negotiated terms with the North Koreans in June, which
led to the scheduling of three operations this year. This
repatriation marks the last of this year's operations.

Twenty-five individual joint operations have been conducted
since 1996 in North Korea, during which remains believed to be
those of at least 178 U.S. soldiers have been recovered.
Thirteen have been positively identified and returned to their
families for burial with military honors.

Of the 88,000 U.S. servicemembers missing in action from all
conflicts, more than 8,100 are from the Korean War.