700th Missing Soldier Found – And the Story Behind It Is Wild!

The identification of Army Cpl. Billie Charles Driver, an 18-year-old from Dallas, Texas, marks a significant moment in the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency’s (DPAA) mission to account for missing service members. Driver was a member of the 1st Calvary Division and was lost in the Battle of the Pusan Perimeter on September 5, 1950, during the Korean War. With this recent identification, DPAA has now successfully accounted for 700 personnel from the Korean War.

Kelly McKeague, director of DPAA, shared his thoughts on the achievement, stating, “This is an incredible milestone. It is reflective of the talent and dedication of the Department of Defense personnel who dutifully serve this sacred mission.” This milestone highlights the decades of dedication by forensic scientists and military personnel who have worked tirelessly to bring closure to the families of the fallen.

Since 1982, DPAA’s forensic team has worked meticulously to identify remains from the war, piecing together the identities of the fallen. This 700th milestone adds to the more than 2,000 American personnel identified in the years immediately following the war, when North Korea returned over 3,000 sets of remains to the U.S.

Kristen Grow, the project lead of the Korean War Identification Project, emphasized the importance of collaboration, noting, “Our dedicated team represents the largest project in the DPAA Laboratory and involves remains from varied sources, including unilateral turnovers, field recoveries, cemetery disinterments and cases turned over to us by our esteemed partner organization in South Korea.”

The Korean War, a brutal conflict that spanned over three years, claimed around 36,500 U.S. lives. More than 7,400 service members remain missing, with DPAA researchers estimating that approximately 5,300 of these missing personnel may be located in North Korea. The task of identifying remains is a complex and often painstaking process, requiring the expertise of historians, anthropologists, odontologists, and DNA specialists.

Grow further highlighted the difficulty of the mission, stating, “Our devoted team considers it a privilege to contribute to this poignant mission every day, where we have the chance to facilitate the reunion of missing service members with their families and loved ones.” It’s a challenging but deeply fulfilling mission to bring closure to families after decades of uncertainty.

The cooperation between North Korea and the U.S. began again in 1990, when North Korea handed over 208 boxes of remains to U.S. custody. Forensic analysis revealed that these boxes contained remains from over 700 individuals, although North Korea initially claimed each box represented a single service member. Over time, technological advancements in DNA analysis have allowed scientists to identify 155 individuals from those remains.

John Byrd, DPAA laboratory director, shared the ongoing difficulties in collaborating with North Korea. “For much of the past three decades, we made little progress identifying the remains we recovered in North Korea, but in the past ten years, we turned the corner and began seeing huge success.”

One significant leap forward in the mission came in 2018 after a summit between then-President Donald Trump and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un. This historic meeting led to North Korea handing over 55 boxes of remains, known as K55, which were thought to contain U.S. service members. Subsequent analysis has identified the remains of an estimated 250 individuals.

Sam Storms, the son of Army Maj. Harvey Storms, who was identified in 2019, offered a message of hope to families waiting for news of their loved ones. “Don’t give up,” he said. “I never expected it [to] happen.” His father, who died in 1950 during the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir, was one of the 93 individuals identified from the K55 boxes.

Despite the lack of cooperation from North Korea since 2018, DPAA continues its efforts to account for missing U.S. personnel from the Korean War. McKeague stated, “Despite North Korea being the only country who does not cooperate on this humanitarian mission… this 700th identification exemplifies the resolute determination of the United States to bring them home.”

The DPAA’s work is far from over, but the progress made in recent years gives hope that more families will soon receive closure.