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Families ask Pentagon
to reveal where ‘unknown’
casualties buried

Experts to exhume four Punchbowl graves

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By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

At least 239 of the 866 Korean War "unknowns" buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Punchbowl were returned with data such as names, dog tags and personal effects, according to a researcher.

That is enough to prompt Donna Knox, president of the Coalition of Families of Korean and Cold War POW-MIAs, to call on the Pentagon "to at least inform their families where they are buried."

"The families have a right to know this," said Knox, who lost her father during the Korean War.

She said when more than 70 sets of unidentified remains were sent to Punchbowl during "Operation Glory" in 1954 -- 15 months after the cease-fire -- "some came back with wallets, rings, photographs and other personal artifacts."

"There was even a manifest," she added.

But Johnie Webb, deputy director of the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory, said the manifest and other information provided by the North Koreans doesn't always match what the U.S. government has on file.

"The problem was that location did not always match where the individual was believed to have been lost," Webb added.

It could be that soldier was taken as a prisoner and died somewhere other than where he was reported as missing.

Knox cited a report by Laurence Jolidon, a former reporter and editor for USA Today, which was released in September.

Jolidon said: "At least 239 of the caskets buried in Hawaii in 1956 contain remains that were among the nearly 2,000 sets that Communist forces turned over in 1954 complete with names, military service numbers and burial information from North Korea that matched U.S. records." The 239 names, Jolidon said, are "those that match when official public data on individuals still listed as unaccounted for from Korea are compared with declassified military personnel and graves registration records, including shipping manifest of Operation Glory."

He added more than 150 of the names were tagged "Pyoktong" -- indicating that the Communists had exhumed them from graves at POW Camp 5 -- one of the largest of the dozens of camps near the town of Pyoktong on the Yalu River, which separated North Korea from China.

Knox said she has no reason not to believe Jolidon's research and included his findings in her organization's newsletter. "It's an interesting perceptive. There hasn't been any government move to undermine or discredit him. ... Larry's article brings up disturbing pieces of information that they know who is buried there," she said.

More than 8,200 servicemen are still listed as missing from the Korean War. Referring to the case of Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Blassie, whose identity military officials knew of even though he was buried as an unknown at Arlington Cemetery, Knox said "the government didn't plan to disclose this identity until there was pressure from the family."

In 1995, the Pentagon certified the use of DNA as a reliable forensic tool. Three years ago, the remains of Blassie were returned to his family for burial after they were successfully identified using DNA technology.

Last year, DNA was instrumental in identifying 19 Marine Raiders who were killed in action on Makin Island, now known as Butaritari, in August 1942.