The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced last week that it has identified the 700th service member listed as missing from the Korean War. More than 7,400 remain missing.

Army Cpl. Billie Charles Driver, 18, of Dallas was identified by the DPAA on Sept. 9. Driver, a member of the 1st Calvary Division, died Sept. 5, 1950, in the Battle of the Pusan Perimeter.

“This is an incredible milestone,” said Kelly McKeague, DPAA director, “It is reflective of the talent and dedication of the Department of Defense personnel who are dutifully serve this sacred mission.”

During the three-plus years of the war, the United States suffered approximately 36,500 casualties. Of the remain missing, the agency’s researchers believe that about 5,300 are located in North Korea.

Since 1982, forensic scientists have analyzed recovered remains to reach this accounting milestone and return fallen Korean War personnel back to their families for proper burial. This number is in addition to the roughly 2,000 Americans whose remains were identified in the years immediately following the end of hostilities when the North Korean government returned more than 3,000 sets of remains to U.S. custody.

“The Korean War Identification Project was established to oversee the identification process for all Korean War laboratory cases,” said Kristen Grow, who leads the project. “Our dedicated team represents the largest project in the DPAA Laboratory and involves remains from varied sources, including unilateral turnovers, field recoveries, cemetery disinterments and cases turned over to us by our esteemed partner organization in South Korea.”

“Don’t give up,” said Sam Storms, the son of Army Maj. Harvey Storms, who died during the Korean War and was identified in 2019, when asked in a 2021 interview what advice he would give to families waiting on the return of their loved ones. “I never expected it happen.”

More than 81,500 Americans remain missing from WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War and the Gulf Wars/other conflicts, according to the DPAA. About 41,000 of the missing are presumed lost at sea. The DPAA does not account for the missing from World War I.

The DOD first established an agency to begin identifying missing service members in 1973.

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