The Korean War was a devastating time in history that saw great loss of life. During those three years, 36,574 Americans lost their lives, and 8,200 were listed as missing in action, lost, or buried at sea. The sad reality left many families without closure on the deaths of their loved ones.
In August 2018, Kim Jong Un and the North Korean government returned 55 transport cases, reportedly containing the remains of US service members killed in Korea. The US government then began the long process of using DNA technology to identify those remains. Scientists from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency used anthropological analysis and circumstantial evidence to determine identities, with the help of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System's deployed DNA analysis.
On July 2, 2021, the family of Army Corporal Richard L. Henderson Jr., who was just 18 when he left his Lansing, New York, hometown to serve his country, received news his remains were among those recently identified.
Corporal Henderson was reported missing on December 6, 1950, when his unit was attacked near the Chosin Reservoir, North Korea. He served as part of the Headquarters Battery, 57th Field Artillery Battalion, 7th Infantry Division.
Corporal Henderson will be honored with a burial fitting of a war hero in his hometown later this month. The burial, set for July 23, 2021, will be a bittersweet moment of closure as everyone remembers a life taken too soon.
