[Vision2020] Soldier Missing in Action from the Korean War is Identified

[Tom Hansen]

>From the United States Department of Defense for immediate release -

While President Bush was posing in front of the bust of Ho Chi Minh while in
Hanoi this last week, the VERY least he could have done was DEMAND
accountability for those American POWs and MIAs in Vietnam who remain
unaccounted for.

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No. 1200-06 IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 28, 2006
Media Contact: (703) 697-5131/697-5132
Public/Industry(703) 428-0711

Soldier Missing in Action from the Korean War is Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced
today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from the
Korean War, have been identified and returned to his family for burial with
full military honors.

He is Master Sgt. Robert V. Layton, U.S. Army, of Cincinnati, Ohio. He is to
be buried today at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington D.C. 

Layton was assigned to Company A, 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 7th
Infantry Division (making up the 31st Regimental Combat Team). The RCT was
engaged against the Chinese People's Volunteer Forces along the Chosin
Reservoir, North Korea. After intense fighting from Nov. 27-Dec. 1, 1950,
the battalion was forced to abandon its position, leaving its dead behind.
Layton was listed as missing in action on Dec. 2, 1950, and was later
presumed killed in action.

Between 2002 and 2004, joint U.S. and Democratic People's Republic of North
Korea teams, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, seven times
excavated a mass burial site associated with the 31st RCT along the eastern
shore of the Chosin Reservoir. The team found human remains and other
material evidence, including Layton's identification tag and part of his
billfold containing a newspaper clipping reporting on a Bronze Star being
awarded to "Sgt. Robert Layton" circa 1944.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence,
scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also
used mitochondrial DNA and dental comparisons in the identification of the
remains.

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Pro patria,

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
U.S. Army (Retired)

"Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil
and steady dedication of a lifetime." 

--Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.