McKINNEY, Texas (AP) – U.S. military officials have identified the remains of a 20-year-old Texas soldier who went missing in 1950 following a combat operation in South Korea.
Army Pfc. Mathis O. Ball is scheduled to be buried Nov. 18 in the southeastern Oklahoma town of Bokchito.
Military authorities say Ball’s company was fighting North Korean forces in July 1950 before he was declared missing in action in the Korean War.
Remains were recovered later that year from an isolated grave and ultimately interred in Honolulu as an unknown soldier.
They were disinterred last year and scientists used DNA, dental and other analyses to confirm in August that the remains were those of Ball.
Ball was raised in Collin County, Texas, north of Dallas. The county is about 60 miles (96 kilometers) southwest of Bokchito.
