Remains Of Korean War POW Returning To Colorado
DENVER (AP) - The remains of an Army corporal who disappeared 65 years ago near the Chosin Reservoir and died while a prisoner of war in North Korea are coming back to Colorado.
A funeral procession with a police escort on Thursday will accompany the body of Army Cpl. Floyd J.R. Jackson from Denver International Airport to a funeral home. On Saturday, he will be buried next to his mother in Centennial.
Jackson was reported kidnapped when his team was deployed east of the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea and it was attacked by overwhelming numbers of Chinese forces. On Nov. 29, 1950, remnants of his task force began a fighting withdrawal to more defensible positions near Hagaru-ri, south of the reservoir. On Dec. 12, 1950, Jackson was reported as missing in action.
A returning service member told U.S. officials that Jackson was captured by the Chinese on Dec. 12, 1950, and had died Feb. 13, 1951, while in an enemy prisoner of war camp. His remains were not among those returned by communist forces during Operation Glory in 1954.
His niece, Joann Mueller, said she learned her uncle had been positively identified by a military forensics team in January. She said the Army came to her home to give the family his medals, including a Purple Heart and Prisoner of War medal.
Mueller said little was said of Jackson in her family until one of her children asked about a family photo. Mueller said she and several other relatives were later asked for DNA samples at a meeting with families of military members in Westminster who were missing in action.
"The meeting included a lot of families from different wars," she said. "They told us they were looking for MIAs and doing recovery missions."
U.S. teams were later allowed to excavate sites in North Korea between 1990 and 2005 and used DNA to identify the remains.
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE LINK: Soldier Missing from Korean War Accounted For
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