LEBANON, Mo. — A soldier from Lebanon, Missouri, who was killed in the Korean War was finally accounted for more than 70 years after his death, according to a release from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA).
According to the DPAA, 24-year-old U.S. Army Cpl. Charles R. Patten went missing in action in July 1950 after his unit was forced to retreat from the vicinity of Taejon, South Korea. At the time, his body could not be recovered due to fighting.
After regaining control of Taejon, the Army began recovering remains from the area and temporarily interring them at the United National Military Cemetery Taejon, according to the DPAA. A tentative association was made between remains designated Unknown X-2 Taejon and Patten, but X-2 was determined unidentifiable because there was no definitive proof. The remains were then sent to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Hawaii.
The Army issued a presumptive finding of death on Dec. 31, 1953, according to the DPAA.
It wasn't until July 2018 that the DPAA proposed a plan to disinter 652 unknown Korean War remains from the Punchbowl.
As part of the phase two of the Korean War Disinterment Project, the remains of Unknown X-2 were sent to a laboratory for analysis, according to the DPAA. The remains were identified as Patten using dental, anthropological and mitochondrial DNA analysis; chest radiograph comparison; and circumstantial evidence.
Patten was officially accounted for on June 7, 2023. The DPAA waited to release the information to the public until the family received a full briefing on his identification.
Patten's name was recorded in the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, and a rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Patten will be buried in Lebanon, Missouri, on a date to be determined, according to the DPAA.
To read Patten's full service member profile, click here.
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