Army Sergeant Donald D. Noehren was 23 when he was captured by the enemy during the Korean War. His remains have been recovered according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) and were buried in Arlington National Cemetery on April 3.
Noehren was serving with Headquarters and Headquarters Service Company, 2nd Engineer Combat Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. They were engaged with the Chinese People’s Volunteer Forces (CPVF) in North Korea, working to delay them along the Ch’ongch’on River. They were ordered to withdrawal. They met several heavily defended enemy roadblocks, enemy mortar fire, and small arms and machine gun fire. Noehrené was one of many US soldiers capture during the retreat. As of November 30, 1950, he was declared missing in action.
Two American prisoners of war reported that Noehren had died on January 22, 1951, in Hofong Camp which was part of the Pukchin-Tarigol Camp Cluster but His name did not appear33 appear in any lists from the North Koren government, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency reported.
Government scientists performed DNA analysis, and they were able to match his DNA to a brother, a sister and a nephew. Anthropological evidence also matched.
There are currently 7,757 US soldiers still unaccounted for from the Korean War. The DPAA continues to use modern technology to identify remains returned by the North Korean government or recovered by recovery teams.