After 65 years, Korean War POW comes home to Mississippi

Army Cpl. Dudley Evans was 24 when he was reported missing in action in Korea in 1951.

Sixty-five years later, Evans is coming home to Greenville.

On Thursday, Evans' body will be brought back to Mississippi, arriving in Jackson. From there, it will be escorted to Greenville, where Evans will be buried with full military honors April 23.

On Feb. 15, 1951, Evans was reported missing in action. He was assigned to Company G, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, which engaged in a battle against enemy forces in the vicinity of Chipyong-ni, South Korea.

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In 1953, returning U.S. soldiers told debriefers that Evans was captured by enemy forces and died during the march to the Suan POW Camp in March 1951. A repatriated American prisoner said he saw a Chinese guard kill Evans during that march.

His remains were not among those turned over by communist forces after the armistice.

Between 1990 and 1994, North Korea returned 208 boxes of commingled human remains to the United States. Combined with remains recovered during joint recovery operations in North Korea, the remains of at least 600 U.S. servicemen who fought during the war were finally accounted for. In June 1999, a team recovered more remains believed to belong to U.S. servicemen in the vicinity of Tare Dong Village, North Korea.

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North Korean documents indicated that some of the remains recovered in those operations were from the area where Evans was believed to have died.

To identify Evans’ remains, scientists from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools to match a DNA sample — that turned out be Evans' — to his nephew.

Today, 76 Mississippians and 7,819 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War. Using modern technology, identifications continue to be made from remains that were previously returned by North Korea or recovered by American recovery teams.

Contact Therese Apel at tapel@gannett.com. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

Services

Visitation for Cpl. Dudley Evans will be 3-5 p.m. Friday at Boone Funeral Home at 905 Main St. in Greenville. A graveside service will be held at 11 a.m. April 23 at Greenville Cemetery at 1000 Main St. in Greenville.

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