The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced recently that Army Sgt. Richard E. Crotty, 22, of Geneva, Illinois, killed during the Korean War, was accounted for Feb. 3, 2023.
In late 1950, Crotty was a member of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. On 1 September 1950, Crotty’s was reported missing in action after his unit was engaged by the Korean People’s Army near Yongsan, South Korea.
There is no indication his remains were recovered after the battle, and he was never recorded as a prisoner of war. The Army issued a presumptive finding of death on Dec. 31, 1953, and his remains were determined to be nonrecoverable in January 1956.
A set of remains was recovered near Yongsan, in July 1951. The remains were thought to be Crotty and were designated X-1667 Tanggok and buried in the United Nations Cemetery Tanggok later that month. In March 1955, the Central Identification Unit Kokura in Japan began a reexamination of X-1667. They made several attempts between then and April 1955 before ultimately declaring the remains unidentifiable. X-1667 was later transported with all of the unidentified Korean War remains and buried as an Unknown at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, Hawaii.
In April 2017, Crotty’s next of kin contacted the Army and requested the disinterment of X-1667 Tanggok as a potential association with Crotty. The remains were disinterred on Sept. 8, 2018, and transferred to the DPAA Laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii for analysis.
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To identify Crotty’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental, anthropological, and isotope analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.
Crotty’s name is recorded on the American Battle Monuments Commission’s Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, 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.
Crotty will be buried in Peoria, Illinois, on April 29, 2023.