Tag: Korean War

Wall of Remembrance to Recognize Korean War Casualties in Washington D.C. Found to Have Over 1,000 Errors

This seems like this would be something hard to screw up, but some how DOD found a way to do just that. Kudos to Hal and Edward Barker at the Korean War Project for identifying these errors:

The US Congress has urged the US Defense Department to take immediate measures to fix more than 1,000 errors on the Washington memorial wall erected to remember service members and Korean augmentees killed during the Korean War.

Six bipartisan lawmakers, including chair of the House Committee on Armed Services Mike Rogers, on March 2 sent a letter to US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

“We find these errors deeply concerning and write to seek accountability on how the Remembrance Wall’s glaring flaws went unnoticed until post-construction,” the letter to Austin read.

The Wall of Remembrance at the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington was unveiled to the public on July 27 last year, marking the anniversary of the armistice agreement that brought a cessation to the three-year Korean War.

The Defense Department in January conceded there were inaccuracies on the Wall of Remembrance that features names of more than 36,000 American service members and more than 7,000 Korean augmentees who died in the theater during the 1950-53 Korean War. It pledged to correct the mistakes in coordination with the Interior Department, explaining that the US military had reviewed every name on the Korean War Casualty List before engraving the wall.

The Pentagon apology came after Edward Barker and Hal Barker, who spent decades researching the Korean War and who operate an online repository of information about the war, first pointed out that the wall contained more than 1,000 spelling errors. The names of 245 late service members who were unrelated to the war were included, and around 500 names that should have been featured on the wall were not inscribed.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Tweet of the Day: LT John Yancy at the Chosin Reservoir

Remains of Texas Veteran from the Korean War Identified

The Trump diplomacy with North Korea ultimately did not amount to much, but one of the good things that happened was that the Kim regime handed over 55 Korean War remains that continue to be identified using DNA analysis:

Korean War veteran Army Cpl. Tommie T. Hanks was killed in action in 1950 during the Korean War. His remains have been identified 72 years later. (DPAA)

He was killed on the battlefield aged just 27 while fighting in the Korean War in 1950. Now, 72 years later, U.S. Army Cpl. Tommie T. Hanks has finally been identified and accounted for.

Cpl. Hanks was originally from Fort Worth, Texas, and was reported missing in action on Nov. 26, 1950, after his unit was attacked by the enemy as it attempted to withdraw from east of the Ch’ongch’on River near Anju in North Korea, according to a statement from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) this week.

“Following the battle, his remains could not be recovered,” the DPAA said, and Hanks was declared “nonrecoverable” on Jan. 16, 1956.

However, after a historic meeting between former president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June 2018, Pyongyang turned over 55 boxes to U.S. authorities that “purported to contain the remains of American service members killed during the Korean War.”

The remains were taken to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where DPAA laboratory experts worked to identify the individuals. Scientists “used anthropological and isotope analysis” as well as DNA evidence to identify Hanks.

His body was finally accounted for in August 2022, the DPAA said, and it found “no evidence that he was ever a prisoner of war.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the Kim regime still holds many more war remains that they keep as bargaining chips for future negotiations.

Picture of the Day: French Korean War Veteran to Be Buried in Korea

French Korean War veteran to be buried in S. Korea
French Korean War veteran to be buried in S. Korea
South Korean honor guards carry a portrait of the late French Korean War veteran Robert Picquenard and a box containing his ashes upon their arrival at Incheon airport, west of Seoul, on Nov. 7, 2022. Picquenard, who participated in the 1950-53 war at 18 and died in France in June this year, had expressed his wish to be buried on South Korean soil before his death. He will be buried at the U.N. Memorial Cemetery in Busan. France and 15 other nations fought for South Korea against invading North Korea forces under the U.N. flag during the conflict. (Yonhap)