Ball, Mathis O. Jr.
Army Private

Mathis O. Jr. Ball from Texas, Denton county.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Wednesday, July 12, 1950
Death details: On August 14, 2018, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Private First Class Mathis O. Ball Jr., missing from the Korean War. Private First Class Ball joined the U.S. Army from Texas and was a member of M Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. On July 11, 1951, his unit was in a defensive position near Chochiwon, South Korea, when they came under attack from North Korean forces. M Company was forced to withdraw, and PFC Ball was reported missing in action once the unit regrouped the next day. He was not seen to fall during the fighting, and was never reported to be a prisoner of war. In October 1951, a set of remains were recovered from an isolated unmarked grave near Chochiwon, and were buried at the United Nation Military Cemetery at Taejon, South Korea. These remains were disinterred from the cemetery in 1951; however, they could not be identified at the time, and were reburied as unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. In 2017, advances in forensic techniques prompted the reexamination of these remains, and they were eventually identified as those of PFC Ball. Private First Class Ball is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency