The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced 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.

United States Army Sgt. Charles P. Whitler will be buried Sept. 2 in his hometown of Cloverport, Ky.

Local news reporting: whas11.com

In early November 1950, Whitler was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, occupying a defensive position near the town of Unsan by the Kuryong River known as the “Camel’s Head.” Two enemy elements attacked the U.S. forces, collapsing their perimeter and forcing a withdrawal. Whitler’s unit was involved in fighting which devolved into hand-to-hand combat around the 3rd Battalion’s command post. Almost 400 men were reported missing or killed in action following the battle.

In late November 1950, a U.S. soldier captured during the battle of Unsan reported during his debriefing that he and nine American soldiers were moved to a house near the battlefield. The POWs were taken to an adjacent field and shot. Three of the 10 Americans survived, though one later died. The surviving solider provided detailed information on the incident location.

Analysts from DPMO developed case leads with information spanning more than 58 years. Through interviews with eyewitnesses, experts evaluated circumstances surrounding Whitler’s captivity and death and researched wartime documentation of his loss.

In May 2004, a joint U.S.-North Korean team, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, excavated a mass grave near the “Camel’s Head.” An elderly North Korean man reported he had witnessed the death of seven or eight U.S. soldiers near that location and provided the team with a general description of the burial site.

The excavation team recovered human remains and other personal artifacts, ultimately leading to the identification of seven soldiers from that site, one of whom was Whitler.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used dental comparisons and mitochondrial DNA – which matched that of Whitler’s sister and niece – in the identification.

More than 2,000 servicemen died as prisoners of war during the Korean War. With this accounting, 8,022 service members still remain missing from the conflict.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO Web site at www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call 703-699-1420.

Wichita Falls, TX. August 30, 2010, members of the Patriot Guard Riders from Oklahoma and North Texas began to arrive at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, to the somber tolling of the Texas Liberty Bell. Hundreds of mourners came to pay their final respects of An American Hero, US Army Spc. Alexis V. Maldonado.

Family members, friends, fellow veterans, and even strangers were unified in honoring this young warrior. The family chose to conduct his funeral services at a church surrounded by members of the Patriot Guard Riders with their flags snapping in the morning breeze.

See more below:

After the church services the procession made it way to the Sacred Heart Cemetery. The procession was greeted by two long flag line down the driveway to the Staging area for the public ceremony. The family later held a private graveside service.

Once the mourners gathered around the 10’x20’ tented area the Patriot Guard Riders then took up position shielding the family and in a show of support.

Brig. Gen. Bryan Watson presented the family with medals awarded posthumously including the Purple Heart and Bronze Medal for valor.

The honor guards were members of 20th Engineer Battalion, Ft. Hood TX. Engineers from this unit were among the victims of the Ft. Hood tragedy last November. Spc. Maldonado’s friends and fellow soldiers were among them.

The honor guard fired a 3-round volley with 7 rifles. Shortly thereafter, the bugler played Taps.
Finally, the honor guards folded the American flag, which had been draped over the casket. Clouds began to let go of a light drizzle. The first flag was presented to the mother. The father received the 2nd flag and his son, Isaiah, received the final flag. At two-years-old he will have to get a little older to understand the significance of this historic event.

Then the light drizzle turned into a full fledged downpour of rain. Most got wet, but know one seem to mind all that much since, it shielded everyone’s tears.

May God bless this young warrior and the family he leaves behind.

Wichita Falls, TX Aug. 28,2010. On a warm clear summer day several dozen family members gathered at the Wichita Falls Municipal Airport to welcome home their loved one, SPC Alexis V. Maldonado.

Also gathered were 50-75 North Texas Patriot Guard Riders who stood by while the family watched the dignified transfer on the tarmac, and later escorted the procession through town on the way to the Owens & Brumley Funeral Home.

Originally, the family had requested no media, but once I explained how my videos are watched by family members who are unable to attend and the troops who served with him.  The family invited me out on the tarmac with them and allowed me to document this solemn ceremony.

This was especially poignant for me as I am preparing for the Patriot Guard Riders National Gathering of the Guard 2010 scheduled for Sept. 9-12 in Killeen/Ft. Hood, where Spc Maldonado was based. His unit was one of the units attacked during readiness processing at Fort Hood last November, and engineers Alexis had trained with were killed or wounded before the unit ever left American soil.

Alexis Maldonado enlisted in the Army a year after he became a father. His son, Isaiah, just turned two.

Alexis became a combat engineer, one of the soldiers who travel dangerous roads, seeking to protect the lives of others while risking their own. Once deployed to Afghanistan, his service was remarkable.  Alexis’s unit was stationed at Forward Operating Base Ramrod, and they cleared roads of IEDs to protect soldiers and civilians alike.  Alexis completed more than one hundred missions of this extremely dangerous duty, usually driving or manning the machine gun position which serves as the eyes of the vehicle.

After his service in the Army, Alexis Maldonado hoped to study auto mechanics at Universal Technical Institute, near home in Dallas, Texas.  He wanted to be a mechanic.  He loved music, and was a dedicated weight-lifter.

Alexis died of wounds he suffered when his convoy was ambushed in Zhari Province, Afghanistan.

Alexis is mourned, remembered, and loved by many, including his parents and step-parents, Jesse, Alicia, Linda, and Keith, his fiancée, Baronica, his son, Isaiah, his brothers, Brad and Sergio, and his sister, Aleksi.

Wichita Falls, TX the itinerary for SPC Alexis V Maldonado is as follows:

Home arrival: Sat. Aug. 28, 2010 at Sheppards AFB at 10:11 AM.

Funeral and interment: Aug. 30, 2010 at Sacred  Heart Church, 150o 9th St. at 10:00AM.

Interment to follow at Sacred Heart Cemetery at Santa Fe St near Cumberland St. 

(Left to right) U.S. Army 1st Lt. Matthew Machacek, from the Texas Agribusiness Development Team, Michéle Flournoy, U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and U.S. Army Maj. William Davis, also from the Texas ADT, pose for a photo while holding the Texas A&M University flag, Aug. 8, at Forward Operating Base Ghazni.

WASHINGTON – The Defense Department is as committed as ever to bringing home thousands of U.S. service members who remain missing from the Korean War and Cold War conflicts, the Pentagon’s undersecretary of defense for policy said, Aug. 26.

“This issue has the full and unequivocal support of this secretary and this nation,” Michele Flournoy said at the Korean War/Cold War Annual Government Briefing on the accounting of missing and imprisoned servicemembers held in Arlington, Va. Ensuring resources are available “to have the fullest possible accounting” is a top priority of the department, she said.

As many as 5,400 Americans may still be in North Korea, and another 900 may be in the demilitarized zone that has divided North and South Korea since an armistice in 1953 halted three years of fighting there, Flournoy said. Because there has never been a peace treaty to officially end the war, those areas remain inaccessible to the department’s search and recovery teams, she said.

American search teams were allowed into North Korea under tight control between 1996 and 2005, and recovered the remains of 225 U.S. servicemembers, 81 of whom have been identified, Flournoy said. Rising international tensions with North Korea over its efforts to obtain nuclear weapons and the sinking of a South Korean navy ship this year have ended those operations, the undersecretary said.

Further complicating efforts, Flournoy said, are ongoing reports that “tiny” numbers of veterans may have defected to the north, raising concerns that they are being held as prisoners of war. Department officials have spent years trying to determine if the reports are true, she said.

“We have no evidence that U.S. servicemembers are being held against their will in North Korea,” she said. “But we cannot tell you in many cases the fate of our missing service members.”

Despite the challenges, she said, “We will get through this difficult period and do everything in our power to resume recovery operations and bring our service members home.”

Flournoy called the issue of missing or imprisoned servicemembers “surely the most painful legacy of war,” and said the department is committed to keeping its search and recovery staff fully resourced. Congress, also, has shown its willingness to provide for the recovery of POWs/MIAs by including in the current budget a directive that 200 new staff members be added to the effort each year until 2015.

Meanwhile, the United States has had increasing collaboration with Russia and China to recover missing service members, and currently is evaluating remains found from a plane crash in the China Sea reported by Chinese officials, Flournoy said.

The department usually recovers the remains of between 80 and 85 missing servicemembers each year, she said.

Flournoy told the audience that their work gives hope to the 200,000 military members currently deployed in war zones. POW/MIA work “is not an artifact of the distant past,” she said. “These issues remain urgent, and our commitment to leaving no one behind is as vital and real as it has ever been.”

Search and recovery techniques have vastly improved in recent years, and the department’s teams are the best in the world, Flournoy said. “No one is more dedicated to the mission,” she added.

“Your loved ones gave their lives for this country,” she said. “We honor their sacrifices, and we are committed to their recovery.”