A portrait of Army Sgt. 1st Class James L. Wilkinson, who was killed during the Korean War. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency accounted for him in December 2022, and his remains will be buried in September 2023 in Barrow County, Ga. (DPAA)
(Tribune News Service) — Army Sgt. 1st Class James L. Wilkinson, of Bowden, was accounted for on Dec. 5, 2022, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Wednesday in a news release.
Wilkinson, 19, was initially reported missing in action when fighting broke out near the Naktong River in South Korea in September 1950, according to the news release.
“Due to the fighting, his body could not be recovered at that time, and there was never any evidence that he was a prisoner of war,” the release stated.
The missing soldier was presumed dead in December 1953.
Years later, the Army started recovering remains from the area — including a set designated “Unknown X-1588,” according to the agency. It was sent to the Central Identification Unit-Kokura in Japan for analysis but could not be identified at the time.
The remains later arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii, to be buried alongside other Korean War Unknowns in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, according to the release.
In 2019, “Unknown X-1588” was among 652 others missing from the Korean War exhumed at the cemetery with hopes of learning who they were, according to the release.
Wilkinson’s remains were finally accounted for using “dental and anthropological analysis, as well as chest radiograph comparison,” officials said.
Wilkinson’s name was recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu cemetery, alongside a rosette to designate that he is now accounted for.
Wilkinson’s body will make the long trip back to the Peach State, according to the agency. He is set to be buried Sept. 16 in Barrow County, about 60 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta.
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