INDIANAPOLIS — Seventy years after he was reported missing in action, a Korean War soldier is coming home to Indiana.
In September, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced that Army Sgt. Stanley L. Dewitt, 18, of Royal City, Indiana, was accounted for last summer.
In 1950, DeWitt was a member of Medical Detachment, 57th Field Artillery Battalion, 7th Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action on Dec. 6, 1950, when his unit was attacked by enemy forces near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea.
In 2018, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un turned over 55 boxes of remains, each containing American military members who died during the Korean War. Those remains were then transferred to the DPAA laboratory in Hawaii.
Using anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence, DPAA scientists were able to identify DeWitt’s remains. Other scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA analysis.
DeWitt’s name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu — alongside others who are still missing from the Korean War. A rosette will be placed next to his name, a sign that he has been accounted for.
There will be a Dignified Transfer of Remains ceremony on Tuesday, Oct. 19, at the Indianapolis International Airport.
DeWitt will then be buried in his hometown of Royal Center, Indiana, on Saturday, Oct. 23.
For more information on DPAA recovery efforts, head to the DPAA website.
