Beckham County Oklahoma

Ray Johnson, age 30, from Beckham County Erick, Oklahoma .

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Friday, September 1, 1950
Death details: On July 9, 2025, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified the remains of U.S. Army Sgt. Ray Johnson, missing from the Korean War. Johnson entered the Army from Oklahoma and served in C Company, 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. On Sept. 1, 1950, during a North Korean offensive near Changyong, South Korea, his unit was overrun, and Johnson was reported missing in action. He was not seen to fall in battle and was not believed to have been taken prisoner. In September 1950, American Graves Registration personnel recovered a set of remains from the area where Johnson was lost. The remains could not be positively identified and were ultimately transferred to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu as a Korean War Unknown. In August 2015, DPAA disinterred this Unknown as part of its Korean War Disinterment Project and accessioned the remains into the DPAA Laboratory for analysis. Using modern forensic techniques, scientists then identified Johnson. He is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. 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, Associated Press (1950)