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Defense POW/MIA Accounting AgencyFulfilling Our Nation's Promise

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## News Release

# Soldier Missing From Korean War Accounted For (Tait)

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced todaythat the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing from the Korean War, have been identified andwill be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Army Cpl. Robert J. Tait, 19, of Bar Harbor, Maine, will be buried Oct. 5, in hishometown. In late 1950, Tait a member of the Headquarters Battery, 57th Field ArtilleryBattalion, 31st Regimental Combat Team, engaged in a battle with enemy forces east of theChosin Reservoir, in North Korea. As the battle continued, the 31st RCT, known historically asTask Force Faith, began a fighting withdrawal to a more defensible position. Following thebattle, Tait was reported missing on Dec. 6, 1950.

In August 1953, returning U.S. soldiers reported that Tait had been captured on Dec. 2,1950, and died shortly afterward due to lack of medical care and malnutrition. His remains werenot among those returned by the Communist Forces during Operation Glory in 1954.

Between 1991 and 1994, North Korea gave the United States 208 boxes of human remainsbelieved to contain the remains of 350 - 400 U.S. servicemen. North Korean documents, turnedover with some of the boxes, indicated that some of the remains were recovered from the areawhere Tait was believed to have died in 1950, near the Chosin Reservoir.

Between 1990 and 2000, teams from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, (JPAC)excavated and recovered human remains near the Chosin Reservoir. Some of those remains arealso associated with Tait. The remains were repatriated and taken to JPAC’s laboratory in Hawaiifor analysis.

To identify Tait’s remains, scientists from the JPAC and the Armed Forces DNAIdentification Laboratory used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools, such asdental comparison, and DNA. Three forms of DNA were used to identify Tait’s remains –Mitochondrial DNA, which matched his sister, Y-STR and auSTR DNA.

Today, more than 7,900 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War. Usingmodern technology, identifications continue to be made from remains that were previously turnedover by North Korean officials or recovered from North Korea by American teams.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missingAmericans, visit the DPMO web site at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call (703) 699-1127.

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