Comments about index record
gailwinds1 · Nov 21, 2021
PFC Piper's remains have been identified and returned: The following was reported by NBC on June 2, 2017: Sixty-six years after a soldier died as a prisoner of war during the Korean War, his remains are coming home to South Jersey. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Friday that it had identified the remains of Army Pvt. Walter Piper of Williamstown, Gloucester County, New Jersey. Piper was just 21 when he went missing when the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, supporting Republic of Korea Army attacks against units of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Forces (CPVF) in the village of Hoengsong, an area known as the Central Corridor in South Korea, withdrew and headed toward Wonju, South Korea on Feb. 13, 1951, the DPAA said. "On Dec. 26, 1951, Piper’s name appeared on a list provided by the CPVF and Korean People’s Army (KPA) of allied service members who died while in their custody," the DPAA said in a news release. "Two returning American prisoners of war reported that Piper had died while a prisoner at the Suan Prisoner of War Camp Complex in North Korea. Based off of this information, the Army declared him deceased as of June 18, 1951." Between 1990 and 1994 North Korea returned 208 boxes of commingled human remains from at least 400 U.S. service members who died during the Korean War. Using DNA analysis that matched Piper’s brother, dental records and circumstantial evidence, scientists positively identified Piper’s remains, the DPAA said.
Fold3_Team · Apr 8, 2013
Private First Class Piper was a member of Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He was wounded and taken Prisoner of War by the enemy in South Korea on February 13, 1951 and died of those wounds while a prisoner on June 18, 1951. His remains were not recovered. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial. Private First Class Piper was awarded the Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Combat Infantryman's Badge, the Prisoner of War Medal, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Presidential Unit Citation and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal.