Friday, September 30, 2022

Upcoming two part mission Friday September 30th in Little Eagle, SD. The NDPG and the SDPGR have been asked to Honor the life of Korean Veteran PFC Melvin James Little Bear. Melvin died in a POW camp in July of 1951.

Stage at the Little Eagle Blue gym at 9 am ct where we will stand a flagline until the service starts.

After the service we will escort to the Standing Rock Veterans cemetery approximately 10 miles north of McLaughlin SD. This is a rain or shine mission so bring what you need to be self-sufficient and remember your 3X5 flags.

Arlen Halverson

NDPG RC

In 1951, Little Bear was a member of A Battery, 15th Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action on Feb. 13 after his unit was attacked by the Chinese People’s Volunteer Forces and conducted a two-day withdrawal from Changbong-ni, South Korea, to Wonju. He had been captured and was a prisoner of war at POW Camp No. 1 in North Korea. Repatriated POWs reports and information from Chinese and North Korean forces said he died in captivity on or about July 21, 1951.

During Operation GLORY in the fall of 1954, remains from Changsong, North Korea, where POW Camp No. 1 was located, were returned to United Nations Command, but could not be identified. The remains, designated X-14251 Operation GLORY, were buried Feb. 16, 1956, at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

In November 2019, during Phase 2 of DPAA’s Korean War Disinterment Project, X-14251 was disinterred from the Punchbowl as part of the planned exhumation of 23 Operation GLORY burials originating from the Changsong area, and transferred to the DPAA Laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii for analysis.

To identify Little Bear’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

Little Bear’s name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are still missing from the Korean War. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.