STEUBENVILLE, Ohio — The remains of a Lancaster County soldier killed in the Korean War have been positively identified as those of U.S. Army PFC Donald M. Born, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Tuesday.
The remains were identified on June 21, the DPAA said.
In July 1950, Born was a member of Company G, 2nd Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. His unit took part in defensive action near Chinju at the southern end of the Korean peninsula.
Early in the morning of July 30, the North Korean People’s Army launched a probing attack against Born’s unit, which then withdrew to a new position. He went missing during the attack but was not reported as officially missing in action until a month later.
Born was never listed as a prisoner of war, and the Army issued a presumptive finding of death on Dec. 31, 1953, the DPAA said.
In January 1951, remains, designated X-220 Masan, were recovered near the village of Pyonggo-ri in the vicinity of Chinju. The remains were initially interred at the U.S. Military Cemetery Masan before being moved to the Central Identification Unit-Kokura in Japan.
While examiners thought Born could be associated with X-220, they could not definitively prove it. X-220 was later transported with all of the unidentified Korean War remains and buried as an Unknown at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, Hawaii.
In March 2019, during Phase 1 of DPAA’s Korean War Disinterment Project, X-220 was disinterred from the Punchbowl as part of the planned exhumation of all remains originating from the Masan area of the Pusan Perimeter, and transferred to the DPAA Laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii for analysis, the DPAA said.
To identify Born’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.
Born’s name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are still missing from the Korean War. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Born will be buried Aug. 30 in Annville, Lebanon County, the DPAA said.
