DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — Korean War veterans in Palm Beach County are reacting to the Department of Defense accounting for the 700th missing U.S. serviceman from the Korean War.
The veterans I spoke with are from the Richard Cronan Chapter of the Korean War Veterans Association based out of Delray Beach.
“Does it give you hope that they’re still trying to identify? Does that mean something to you guys?” I asked the group of five veterans.
The entire group answered with a resounded, “Yes, of course.”
To get to this point, it’s taken years of constant work by Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency historians, anthropologists and volunteers.
U.S. relations with North Korea have not been active for this cause since 2018.
The Korean War lasted from 1950 to 1953 and is still dubbed “The Forgotten War” by those who served in that era.
Currently there are 7,400 U.S. servicemen unaccounted for from the Korean War.
WATCH: Mike Trim's complete interview with Korean War Veterans Association
Those Americans could have died in Korea or were taken prisoner and never heard from again.
“We lost some of them. Where they went, what they did, were they prisoners or not? We didn’t know,” Korean War veteran Phil Brazerman said.
I talked with Kristen Grow, the Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency Korean War identification project lead.
She said there are hundreds of potential sets of remains her staff have to go through, but advancements in technology has been promising to find more answers for families of servicemen.
“Though a case might be stuck at a certain point, we are always going back with new advancements and technology to try to make those identifications," Grow said. "And we will never stop doing that until we’ve identified everyone we have in the lab.”
The remains her teammates are examining and making positive matches with are mainly from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii, and also from boxes of remains handed over by North Korea.
“We have been processing those continuously since the the early 1990s,” Grow said.
Another lab within the Department of Defense matches DNA pulled from the remains with DNA voluntarily provided by families of missing servicemen.
All this work combined has led to the milestone of the 700th identification of an Army corporal from Dallas, Texas.
“I’m so happy that at least their family has closure," Korean War veteran Herb Dareff told me. "I think back and I’ve got tears in my eyes.”
“It means more than anything to see our service members, our heroes to go home and to be able to give those answers to the families that have waited so long,” Grow said.
The veterans I spoke with hope more identifications will happen soon.
“We fought for our country, but we each fought for each other,” Korean War veteran Salvatore D’Angelo said.
“We were proud to do it and it was an honor to serve our country," Korean War Era veteran George Pearlman said. "So, we stick together.”
