Washington, D.C. — Another missing serviceman has been identified. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced today that Marine Corps Pfc. Ray P. Fairchild, 21, of Salyersville, Kentucky, was killed during the Korean War. He was accounted for and identified on July 29, 2019. In late 1950, Fairchild was a member of Company D, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division. He was killed in action Nov. 27, 1950, near the town of Yudam-ni, west of the Chosin Reservoir, North Korea. Following the war his remains could not be recovered. In 1954, during Operation Glory, North Korea and the United States Command exchanged the remains of casualties. One set of remains could not be identified and were subsequently buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu. On May 11, 2012, the Joint Personnel Accounting Command (a predecessor to DPAA) disinterred the body and sent the remains to the laboratory. To identify Fairchild’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial and material evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and autosomal DNA (auSTR) analysis. Fairchild will be buried Nov. 23, 2019, in his hometown in Magoffin County.

                                                      Marine Corps Pfc. Ray P Fairchild