GRAFTON, W.Va. — The remains of a Grafton native who went missing during the Korean Conflict have been identified and will be interned later this month.
In July of 1950, U.S. Army Corporal Howard Godwin Jr., 22, was reported missing while fighting against the North Korean Army in the Taejon are of South Korea.
In January of 1951, three sets of remains were recovered around three miles away from where Godwin’s unit was fighting. Two were identified, but the third soldier could not be positively identified.
The third set of remains were given a unique identifier and then buried as an Unknown Soldier in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) historians and anthropologists were able to identify 652 Korean War unknown burials in 2019, one of those soldiers is Godwin.
Officials said a rosette will be placed next to Godwin‘s name on the American Battle Monument Commission’s Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, indicating he has been accounted for.
Godwin will be buried in Grafton on November 15th.
Family and funeral information is available by calling the U.S. Army Casualty Office at 800-892-2490.