United States Army Group Burial – 1 November 1950

NEWS RELEASES from the United States Department of Defense
No. 764-06 IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Soldier Missing in Action From the Korean War is Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today 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.

He is Corporal Edward F. Blazejewski, U.S. Army, of Elizabeth, New Jersey. He is to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. on Friday, 11 August 2006.

Blazejewski was assigned to Medical Company, 8th Cavalry Regiment, when his unit came under heavy artillery attack by Chinese forces near Unsan, North Korea, on November 1, 1950. During the attack, Corporal Blazejewski and other soldiers killed in action were left behind when their unit moved to a previous defensive position. A U.S. soldier who had been held as a prisoner of war by the North Koreans told debriefers that Blazejewski and others had been killed by a grenade explosion.

In August 1997, a joint U.S.-North Korean team, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) excavated a site in Pyongan Province believed to contain the remains of several U.S. soldiers. Remains representing four men were recovered, as well as an identification tag and a denture, neither of which were associated with Blazejewski.

The other three soldiers were identified and buried in 2000. Buried at Arlington were Sergeant James T. Higgins, Benham, Kentucky; and Private First Class John L. Hoey, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Sergeant Andrew Ernandis, Brooklyn, New York, was buried in Hicksville, N.Y. Group remains representing all four soldiers will also be buried Friday at Arlington.

Among other forensic identification tools, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA in the identification of Blazejewski’s remains, matching a DNA sequence from a maternal relative.

Michael Robert Patterson

Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.

Reviewed by: Michael Howard