The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that Army Cpl. Robert C. Agard, Jr., 19, of Buffalo, New York, killed during the Korean War, was accounted for Sept. 29, 2020.
In July 1950, Agard was a member of 2nd Platoon, 24th Reconnaissance Company, 24th Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action on July 19 while conducting a night recon patrol with his unit near Taejon, South Korea. He was never found, nor were any remains recovered that could be identified as Agard. He was declared non-recoverable in January 1956.
A set of remains, designated Unknown X-311 Taejon, was found near Daebyeol-dong, a village near Taejon, along with the remains of two members of Agard’s unit, in December 1950. However, X-311 could not be identified. The remains were later transported with all of the unidentified Korean War remains and buried as Unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, Hawaii.
In July 2018, DPAA historians and anthropologists proposed a plan to disinter and identify the 652 Korean War unknown burials from the Punchbowl, including 53 recovered from the Taejon area. X-311 was disinterred June 10, 2019, as part of the Korean War Identification Project, and transferred to the DPAA Laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii.
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To identify Agard’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.
Agard’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.
Agard will be buried May 30, 2022, in Elmira, New York.
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