The 17 -year -old American soldier who disappeared in the Korean war is counted

A 17 -year -old soldier who was killed during the Korean War was counted for 75 years after he disappeared, authorities said Monday.

CPL Army. Albert J. Estrada was a member of Battery B, 57th Field Artillery Battalion, 31st Regiment Combat Team, 7th Infantry Infantry Division, the Pow/MIA Defense Accounting Agency said in a press release. The service began in July 1950, according to the Memorial of Veterans of the Korean War. He was one of tens of thousands of soldiers present at the Battle of Chosin reservoir in November and December 1950, said the DPAA.

During the battle, 30,000 members of the United Nations services, including American soldiers, faced 120,000 Chinese and North Korean enemy forces in “injured land in lethally cold climate,” said DPAA. The battle, which the DPAA described as “one of the most brutal” of the entire war, broke out for 17 days.

Army officials wanted to push North Korean forces to China and severe supply lines near the Chosin reservoir, said the DPAA. But North Korean forces launched a surprise attack that forced a group of soldiers to retire at the end of November. A few days later, Chinese soldiers surrounded and isolated another group of soldiers. A working force was hastily assembled to try to organize a withdrawal. A “bitter fight” allowed UN forces to open an aviation field to bring reinforcements and evacuate casualties on December 1, according to the US army and, finally, UN soldiers achieved a complete retreat.

More than 1,000 American marines and soldiers were killed during this time, said the DPAA. Thousands more were injured or incapacitated by the cold climate. Due to the elements and the retirement, “hundreds of marines and fallen soldiers could not recover immediately,” said the DPAA.

Estrada was one of the soldiers that could not be located after the battle. He was reported as missing on December 6, 1950. There was no information to indicate that he was once held as a war prisoner, said the DPAA. Three years later, on December 31, 1953, the US Army. UU. Issued an alleged death discovery.

Between 1953 and 1954, the North Korean government returned thousands of soldiers who had died during the Korean War. The remains had been buried in UN cemeteries in North Korea. The effort, known as Operation Glory, included the return of 500 sets of remains that had been buried near the Chosin reservoir. All but 126 of the remains were identified. The unidentified remains were buried as unknowns in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, said the DPAA.

From 1990 to 1994, the North Korean government returned 47 additional remains containers attributed to the battle of Chosin Reservoir. From these recovery efforts, the DPAA and the organizations that preceded it could identify more than 130 of the lost unhappy personnel lost in the Chosin reservoir campaign.

The DPAA did not say what delivery of the remains of Estrada were recovered. A complete announcement of its accounting will be shared on a later date, said the agency.

Estrada obtained multiple military honors, including the purple heart, the National Defense Service Medal and the War Service Medal of the Republic of Korea, according to the Memorial of Veterans of the Korean War.

The surviving brothers of Estrada, Manuel Estrada and Ruth Tucker, have pressed for a long time for their identification, according to a 2018 article by The Daily Democrat. That year, Tucker was presented with a medal of the Republic of South Korea in honor of his efforts to give an account of the missing American soldiers who died during the Korean War. At that time, Tucker said Complete identification The remains of the Korean war can take between four and five years.

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• South Korea
• North Korea