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thedrifter
03-18-09, 03:02 PM
Remains of Korean War POW identified
Nebraska servicemember to be buried at Arlington
Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Thursday, March 19, 2009

The remains of a Korean War soldier who died while in North Korean captivity have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial, the Defense Department announced Tuesday.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Patrick J. Arthur, of Broken Bow, Neb., will be buried with full military honors May 1 at Arlington National Cemetery, according to a release.

Arthur was a member of Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 38th Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. In mid-May 1951, he was with elements of the division south of the Soyang River in South Korea when the Chinese army launched a major counteroffensive, the release said.

The division was forced to withdraw south to a more defensible position near the Hongchon River. During the withdrawal, Arthur was captured May 18 and was marched north into North Korea.

Arthur died of malnutrition and disease in July and was buried at the Suan Mining POW Camp near Pyongyang, the release said.

His dog tag and a denture fragment with his name on it were returned in the early 1990s, when North Korea gave the United States 208 boxes believed to contain the remains of 200 to 400 U.S. servicemen, the release said.

Scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory subsequently used mitochondrial DNA and dental comparisons to identify some of the remains as Arthur’s.

Ellie