New York (Washington Insider Magazine) – Reports have revealed that, after 71 long years, the remains of a Korean War veteran are now finally returning to the United States.
Army Corporal Walter A. Smead, who was from New York and died in action back in 1950, has been identified by scientists at long last.
The remains of Army Corporal Smead were turned over to the United States by North Korea in 2018, with the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System working around the clock to identify the fallen veterans using mitochondrial DNA analysis.
Smead, who was 24 years old in 1950, went missing in a bitterly cold December after the United States Army retreated from the Chosin Reservoir, a process that took six days in total.
During this time, temperatures dropped to a staggering 30 degrees below zero and the US subsequently lost many soldiers to the cold, Army Corporal Smead included.
Chinese forces had attacked the 7th Infantry Division of the 57th Field Artillery Battalion, of which Smead was a part, for multiple nights at the Chosin Reservoir. Just three days into the assault and over 90% of the division had either been wounded or fallen – numbers sourced from the National Museum of the United States Army.
Reports claim that Army Corporal Smead died during the retreat in an attempt to assist his fellow soldiers across the reservoir, which had frozen over. The US Marines had maintained control on the other side of the frozen water, but Smead was unable to make it to that point of safety.
Upon returning to the United States, Smead’s remains will be buried at the B.H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery in Schuylerville later this month.
Although his return has been a long time coming, at the very least, the Korean War veteran will finally be able to find rest back on familiar shores and his relatives will be able to visit a grave they have long since been without.
