Arthur Paul Carlsen, age 19, from Citrus County Bayonne, Florida .
Parents: Arthur C. Carlsen
Service era: Korea
Date of death: Thursday, November 2, 1950
Death details: On Sept. 26, 2025, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified the remains of U.S. Army Pvt. Arthur Paul Carlsen, missing from the Korean War. Carlsen entered the Army from Florida and was a member of Company L, 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. On Nov. 2, 1950, L Company was supporting other 8th Cavalry Regiment elements near Unsan, North Korea, when it was hit by an enemy mortar and infantry attack and forced to withdraw back to the 3rd Battalion’s command post. Units faced continued enemy attacks during the fighting withdrawal, and at some point, during the action Carlsen went missing. He was not seen since and was never reported as a prisoner of war. Lacking evidence or reports of his survival, the Army issued a presumptive finding of death for Carlsen on Dec. 31, 1953. Between 1990 and 1994, North Korea turned over to the U.S. a total of 208 boxes of remains, collectively known as the K-208, purported to be U.S. service members who died during the Korean War. In 1993, the U.S. Army’s Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii accessioned the remains in Box 9—one of 148 boxes accessioned that year— for scientific analysis and potential identification. Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii was subsequently reorganized as Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, a predecessor of today’s DPAA. The remains in Box 9 were allegedly recovered from the Chonsung-ri, Unsan County, North Pyongan Province, North Korea. The laboratory analysis and the available circumstantial evidence established an association between one set of these remains and Carlsen. He 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, Camden Courier Post
