Bray, Robert Lee
Army Private 1st class

Robert Lee Bray, age 18, from Ross County Ohio.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Thursday, July 20, 1950
Death details: On June 6, 2019, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Corporal Robert L. Bray, missing from the Korean War. Corporal Bray, who entered the U.S. Army in Ohio, served with C Company, 1st Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action on July 20, 1950, after his unit fought a defensive action near Taejon, South Korea, though the details of his loss are unknown. Following the incident, the 565th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company recovered his body from a common grave in Kujong-ni, North Korea; however, forensic analysis conducted at the time did not identify CPL Bray, and his remains were buried as unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii. In 2018, advances in forensic technology prompted the disinterment of all unknown remains from the Korean War, and in 2019, DPAA laboratory personnel identified CPL Bray from among them. Corporal Bray is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. His name is also inscribed on the Korean War Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC, which was updated in 2022 to include the names of the fallen.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency