NPR News, Classical and Music of the Delta
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Missing Korean War Soldier To Be Buried In Downsville

Beverly & Pack / Flickr.com
/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Funeral services are this weekend for a Louisiana soldier declared missing during the Korean War, whose remains were recovered last year.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency says 19-year-old Army Sgt. 1st Class Lester R. Walker, of Ferriday, will be buried in Downsville following graveside services Saturday at Ruggs Bluff Cemetery.

Walker was a member of Battery B, 82nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division on Sept. 3, 1950. He was declared missing in action near Changnyeong, South Korea, while attached to Task Force Haynes.

The unidentified remains were buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Hawaii. Scientists used dental, anthropological and chest radiograph comparison analysis to match his records and identify him.

Today, 7,704 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War.