HAMLET, N.C. — Almost 75 years after he was killed during the Korean War, a North Carolina veteran is coming home to be laid to rest.
Army Pvt. 1st Class Clem D. McDuffie was a member of Item Company, 3rd Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. He was reportedly killed in action on Nov. 30, 1950, after his unit was attacked as they withdrew near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea.
In 1954, North Korea turned over remains to the United States, including a set designated "Unknown X-15670." The remains were buried as unknown in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. None of the remains could be identified as McDuffie and he was declared non-recoverable on Jan. 16, 1956.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency disinterred the unknown remains in March 2021 as part of the Korean War disinterment project. Scientists from DPAA used chest radiograph comparison, dental and anthropological analysis while the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA and mitochondrial genome sequence analysis to identify McDuffie's remains.
McDuffie will be buried in Hamlet, North Carolina, on Nov. 30, 2024.