Burke County teen reported MIA in Korean War has now been accounted for
A Burke County teenager killed in the Korean War was recently accounted for more than 70 years after he was reported missing in action.
U.S. Army Cpl. Rex W. Powell, of Valdese, was officially accounted for on Feb. 13 and his family recently learned of the identification.
Powell was a member of L Company, 3rd Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division in the winter of 1950. He was reported missing in action on Dec. 12, 1950 when Powell’s unit was attacked by enemy forces near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea.
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There is no record or eyewitness account of Powell being held as a prisoner of war and no recovered remains were ever a positive match.
The Army issued a presumptive finding of death on Dec. 31, 1953. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea returned the remains of over 2,900 Americans in 1954 during Operation GLORY, but Powell’s remains were not among them.
In July 2018, the DPAA proposed a plan to disinter 652 Korean War Unknowns from the Punchbowl, according to a news release. During Phase 3 of of DPAA’s Korean War Disinterment Project, Powell’s remains were identified through dental and anthropological analysis.
Powell’s name is now listed on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are still missing from the Korean War.
For more information on DPAA recovery efforts, click here.
‘It makes a difference’
On Friday, Channel 9′s Dave Faherty spoke with veterans who said the work to identify our missing military members should never end.
At American Legion post 234 in Valdese, Powell’s name is listed as one of the men from Burke County killed during the Korean War.
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Andy Coulter said he remembers Powell attending the Rock School in Valdese, and word of his possible death in December 1950.
“Where he lived and when he got killed. They assumed he got killed but he never did come home,” Coulter said.
Phil Ramsey is a veteran and has family members who served and died during the Korean War.
“It makes a difference to people when you find out remains have been found,” he said. “You ought to bring them home.”
Al Gurowski showed Faherty the wall of honor he created in a shed behind his home in Burke County. He told Faherty he strongly supports efforts to identify all MIAs. Three generations of his family have served in the military.
“I think it’s an awesome deal for them,” Gurowski said. “I hope they don’t ever give up. We’ve got them from Vietnam.”
Powell will be buried in Salisbury later this summer on Aug. 11.
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