Soldier from CA reported missing in action during Korean War. Now remains identified

In the heat of battle nearly a year into the Korean War, U.S. Army Cpl. Carmen Carrillo, of California, held a defensive position “on a hill crest between the Hongchong and Soyang rivers” in South Korea, according to military officials.

His regiment, however, was eventually overrun by enemy forces, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

The 20-year-old was reported missing in action on May 17, 1951, and for the next seven decades, he would remain unaccounted for, DPAA said.

Now, thanks to “dental and anthropological analysis,” which included mitochondrial DNA analysis, his remains have been identified, the agency said in a March 28 news release.

Before he was reported missing in action, Carrillo was seriously injured during battle in South Korea in February 1951, according to the American Battle Monuments Commission. He returned to duty two months later.

A month after his return, Carrillo, who served in the 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, was fighting on the defensive line known as the “No Name Line,” according to DPAA.

The area was overrun by “overwhelming numbers of Chinese and North Korean troops,” which forced some of the regiment to fall back, the agencysaid. Within days, the enemy was attacking from the rear, and some of the regiment redeployed to deal with that.

While “the 38th Infantry ultimately held the line,” it “suffered many casualties,” the DPAA said.

Carrillo was reported missing in action, and two years later, he was presumed dead after the end of the war, according to the agency.

In 2013, the Ministry of National Defense Agency for Killed in Action Recovery and Identification recovered a number of remains near Gangwon Hongchun in South Korea, DPAA said.

A total of six remains believed to belong to American military members were sent to the United States, according to DPAA.

After being sent to and tested at a Hawaiian laboratory in 2021, one of the remains was identified as Carrillo on Feb. 3, DPAA said.

Carillo’s name is listed on the American Battle Monuments Commission’s Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii, where a rosette will be placed to show he’s been accounted for, according to DPAA.

Carrillo received a number of military decorations, including the Purple Heart, Korean Service Medal and United Nations Korea Service Medal, according to the American Battle Monuments Commission.

He “will be buried in his hometown” of Lompoc, which is about 55 miles northwest of Santa Barbara, DPAA said.

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