According to the Defense POW / MIA Accounting Agency, Army Master Sgt. Richard Davis, killed in the Korean War, has now been accounted for.
In early November 1950, Davis was a member of Company K, 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, near Unsan, North Korea, when Chines People’s Volunteer Forces attacked the regiment and forced the unit to withdraw. Many soldiers became surrounded and attempted to escape and evade the enemy, but were captured and marched to POW camps.
Davis was declared missing in action as a result of the battle that occurred between Nov. 1 and 2, 1950. In 1953, as part of a prisoner of war exchange, known as “Operation Big Switch,” returning U.S. soldiers told debriefers that Davis was captured by enemy forces and died in February or March of 1951, but his remains were not recovered.
Between 1990 and 1994, North Korea returned to the United States 208 boxes of commingled human remains, some of which were recovered in the vicinity of where Davis was believed to have died. Lab analysis, in conjunction with the totality of circumstantial evidence evailable, established Master Sgt. Davis’ remains were among those returned to the United States.
Interment services are set for June 24 in Blairsville, Pennsylvania.