ARAB, Ala. — U.S. Army Cpl. Waymon Slaten, an 18-year-old from Arab, Alabama, who was killed during the Korean War, has been accounted for 74 years after his death, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced on Tuesday.
Slaten was reported missing on September 1, 1950, after his unit, B Company of the 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, engaged in combat with enemy forces on Hill 209, located west of Yongsan, South Korea.
Due to intense fighting, Slaten’s body could not be recovered at that time. The U.S. Army officially declared him presumptively dead on December 31, 1953.
In October 1950, American Graves Registration Service recovered remains from the area where Slaten was last seen. However, the remains, known as Unknown Remains X-256, could not be identified at the time and were buried as an unknown soldier in the United Nations Military Cemetery in Tanggok, South Korea. After further examination, the remains were later repatriated to the United States in 1954 and interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii.
During the DPAA’s Korean War Disinterment Project in May 2021, the remains were dug up and sent for further analysis. Using dental records, anthropological analysis, chest radiograph, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) testing, and other circumstantial evidence, scientists were able to confirm that the remains belonged to Cpl. Slaten.
Slaten’s name had previously been listed on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, a memorial that honors those still unaccounted for from the Korean War. A rosette will now be placed next to his name to signify that he has been identified.
Cpl. Slaten will be buried in his hometown of Arab, on January 13, 2025.
For more information regarding funeral details, families can contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.
For the latest updates on recovery efforts from the Korean War, visit the DPAA’s Korean War Accounting page.
