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(Ottumwa, IA) -- The remains of an Iowa soldier who died as a prisoner during the Korean War will be returned to Ottumwa.
The U.S. Defense Department says Delbert L. White was captured on December 1, 1950, and died of malnutrition on March 18, 1951.
His remains were identified in September 2022, and will soon return to Ottumwa for burial.
The department says:
"During Operation GLORY, the postwar exchange of war dead, remains from burial grounds around POW Camp 5 were returned to United Nations Command. The majority were identified, but 38 sets of remains could not be. Those remains were buried as Unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. In October 2019, as part of a planned exhumation of Project GLORY burials originating from Camp 5, one set of remains was disinterred and sent to a DPAA laboratory for further study. The laboratory analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available established the remains as those of CPL White."