Smith, Edward Joseph
Army Private 1st class

Edward Joseph Smith from Northampton County Pennsylvania.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Thursday, August 31, 1950
Death details: On May 15, 2024, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Corporal Edward Joseph Smith, missing from the Korean War. Corporal Smith entered the U.S. Army in Pennsylvania and served in B Company, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. Throughout August 1950, and into September, the division fought a series of battles against North Korean Forces for strategic positions on the Naktong River near Yongsan, South Korea. On August 31, North Korean Forces crossed the river and overran several American positions, including those held by Cpl Smith’s battalion. He was killed during this fighting, but the exact details of his loss are unknown. In December 1950, U.S. personnel recovered remains from the area where Cpl Smith was lost. They could not be identified at the time and were eventually interred as an unknown at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. In June 2021, DPAA personnel exhumed these remains for further study. The laboratory analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available allowed scientists to identify the remains as those of Cpl Smith. Corporal Smith 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