The Trump diplomacy with North Korea ultimately did not amount to much, but one of the good things that happened was that the Kim regime handed over 55 Korean War remains that continue to be identified using DNA analysis:
He was killed on the battlefield aged just 27 while fighting in the Korean War in 1950. Now, 72 years later, U.S. Army Cpl. Tommie T. Hanks has finally been identified and accounted for.
Cpl. Hanks was originally from Fort Worth, Texas, and was reported missing in action on Nov. 26, 1950, after his unit was attacked by the enemy as it attempted to withdraw from east of the Ch’ongch’on River near Anju in North Korea, according to a statement from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) this week.
“Following the battle, his remains could not be recovered,” the DPAA said, and Hanks was declared “nonrecoverable” on Jan. 16, 1956.
However, after a historic meeting between former president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June 2018, Pyongyang turned over 55 boxes to U.S. authorities that “purported to contain the remains of American service members killed during the Korean War.”
The remains were taken to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where DPAA laboratory experts worked to identify the individuals. Scientists “used anthropological and isotope analysis” as well as DNA evidence to identify Hanks.
His body was finally accounted for in August 2022, the DPAA said, and it found “no evidence that he was ever a prisoner of war.”
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link, but the Kim regime still holds many more war remains that they keep as bargaining chips for future negotiations.
Hollywood has finally taken me up on my suggestion I made many years ago to make a movie on the life of Korean War hero Jesse Brown. It is amazing it took this long to make such an inspiring story into a movie after all these years of mostly trash war movies. Hopefully Hollywood sticks to telling the real life story of Jesse Brown and does not Hollywood-ize it:
Devotion, an aerial war epic based on the bestselling book of the same name, tells the harrowing true story of two elite US Navy fighter pilots during the Korean War. Their heroic sacrifices would ultimately make them the Navy’s most celebrated wingmen.
Youtube
You can read my prior posting about Jesse Brown at the below link:
