HARRISBURG, Pa. — Governor Wolf ordered the United States and commonwealth flags at half-staff to honor a Korean War veteran.
U.S. Army Pfc. Edward J. Reiter, 17, from Northhampton, was killed during the Korean War and was accounted for on June 21, 2022. Reiter's remains were identified nearly 72 years after his death.
The United States and commonwealth flags will be lowered to half-staff from sunrise to sunset on Oct. 22, the day of Reiter's funeral.
All Pennsylvanians have been invited to participate in the tribute.
Reiter was a member of K Company, 3rd Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division.
He was reported missing in action on July 7 after his unit sustained heavy casualties while defending against the North Korean army’s advance near Ch’onan, South Korea.
His body was not recovered because his unit was forced to retreat, nor were any remains found that could be identified as Reiter.
The Army declared him non-recoverable in Jan. 1956 and issued a presumptive finding of death after the end of the war.
In May 1951, two sets of remains were recovered approximately one mile north of Ch’onan. The eventual examination determined one set to be of Asian ancestry and the other, designated X-1091 Tanggok, to be of European ancestry.
X-1091 was unable to be further identified by American Graves Registration Service and was determined unidentifiable in August 1954.
The remains were later transported with all of the unidentified Korean War remains and buried as Unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, Hawaii.
In Nov. 2019, during Phase 2 of DPAA’s Korean War Disinterment Project, X-1091 was disinterred from the Punchbowl as part of the planned exhumation of all 53 burials originating from the United Nations Military Cemetery Taejon and the Taejon area, and transferred to the DPAA Laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii for analysis.
To identify Reiter’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as chest radiograph comparison and circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA analysis.
