Remains of California MIA from the Korean War Identified

A US Soldier killed during the Korean War has had his remains identified and buried with full military honors in California:

Nearly 65 years after his death, Laverne Minnick’s older brother is finally coming home to rest.

The remains of Army Cpl. Robert V. Witt, a 20-year-old Bellflower man missing since the Korean War, were identified last month, and returned earlier this week to Minnick, 82, his last surviving family member.

“I am so happy. He’s going to be home, where he belongs, with his family,” said Minnick, a Huntington Beach resident.

Witt will be buried with full military honors at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier on Friday.

TASK FORCE FAITH

In late November 1950, Witt was assigned to 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 31st Regimental Combat Team, 7th Infantry Division, known as Task Force Faith, the Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said in a press statement.

They were attacked by thousands of Chinese forces at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. On Dec. 1, 1950, remnants of the 31st Regimental Combat Team tried moving to a position south of the reservoir, but the next day, Witt was reported missing in action, the statement said.

In 1953, during the prisoner of war exchanges known as Operation Little Switch and Operation Big Switch, repatriated U.S. soldiers told officials that Witt had been captured during the battle and died from malnutrition. He death is estimated at Jan. 31, 1951.

208 BOXES OF UNIDENTIFIED BONES

His remains, however, were not among those returned by Communist forces in 1954, the statement said.

Between 1990 and 1994, North Korea returned to the United States 208 boxes of unidentified human bones, no full skeletons, primarily fragments. U.S. officials later realized the boxes contained remains from 600 Korean War veterans, the statement said.

North Korean documents included in the repatriation said that some of the bones were recovered from the area where Witt was believed to have died.

REMAINS IDENTIFIED

In July 2000, a joint U.S./North Korean team excavated a burial site near Hwaong-Ri Village, and recovered additional human remains.

The only remains of Witt that were found in the boxes and the excavation site were his two femurs.  [Press Telegram]

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