Burial on Saturday for Kentucky soldier killed in Korean War
WHITESVILLE, Ky. (WTVQ) — The burial for a Kentucky soldier killed in the Korean War whose remains were only just identified in August is set for Saturday. Gov. Andy Beshear has ordered all flags to lower to half-staff Friday.
Eighteen-year-old Army Pfc. Robert A. Wright died in combat in July 1950, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency website. He was finally identified on Aug. 15.
Wright was part of the C Company, 1st Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He went missing in action during combat along the Kum River in Taejon, South Korea. The Army issued a “presumptive finding of death” on Dec. 31, 1953.
After regaining control of Taejon, the Army began recovering remains from the area, with one set of remains designated as Unknown X-296 Taejon. They were unable to identify them and were sent to Hawaii and buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Eventually, scientists from the DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis and circumstantial evidence and were able to identify those remains as Wright.
His name is now recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, where a rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
He will be buried on Dec. 10 in Whitesville. For more funeral information, you may contact the Army Casualty Office at 800-892-2490.
