Curley, George Armand Jr.
Army Private

George Armand Jr. Curley, age 19, from Belknap County Laconia, New Hampshire .

Parents: George A. Curley

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Unknown
Death details:

On March 3, 2025, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Pfc. George Armand Curley Jr., missing from the Korean War.

Curley entered the U.S. Army from New Hampshire and served with Headquarters Services Company, 2nd Engineer Combat Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was taken captive on November 30, 1950, during his unit’s attempt to fight through a heavily defended enemy roadblock near Kunu-Ri, North Korea. Repatriated POWs later reported that Curley died in February or March 1951 while held captive at Camp 5 at the Pyoktong POW camp cluster. He was likely buried nearby, but his remains were not among those returned from this area after the ceasefire. In September and October 1954 during Operation GLORY, the United Nations Command and the Chinese Communist Forces exchanged the remains of fallen service personnel. After those remains were processed by the Central Identification Unit (CIU) Laboratory at Kokura, Japan, the CIU was unable to positively associate any loss with Curley. In 1956, all unidentified remains were transferred to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific and interred there as Unknowns. In July 2018, the DPAA proposed a plan to disinter 652 Korean War Unknowns from the Punchbowl. On November 18, 2019, as part of Phase Two of the Korean War Disinterment Plan, one set of Unknown remains was disinterred by DPAA personnel and sent to the DPAA laboratory for analysis. The laboratory analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available established the remains as those of Curley.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Concord Monitor (1951)