Corporal Luther H. Story from Buena Vista, GA was last seen on Sept. 1, 1950 during a skirmish between U.S. and South Korean forces against North Korea. Already wounded according to U.S. officials accounts, Story’s sacrifice reportedly allowed his allies to escape to safer ground. His remains were not found after the battle, nor was Story taken prisoner, according to military reports.
In 1951, Gen. Omar Bradley posthumously awarded Story the Medal of Honor, the military’s highest decoration. By 1954, military officials announced Story’s remains unrecoverable.
However, 67 years later in 2021, U.S. officials dug up 652 unidentified people killed in the Korean War from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii. Using DNA, dental, and anthropological analysis, scientists were able to identify Story. Story’s remains had been found near Sangde-po, South Korea.
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol honored Story with his living relative, his niece Judy Wade and her husband Joseph at the Korean War Memorial. Story’s recovery is part of a joint effort by both the U.S. and South Korean governments to identify missing soldiers.
