Missing Korean War soldier's remains being returned to Iowa more than 70 years later

The remains of a U.S. Army corporal from the Ottumwa area who died as a prisoner of war during the Korean conflict have been identified and will be returned to Iowa for burial, according to the U.S. Defense Department's POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

Delbert L. White was captured by enemy forces on Dec. 1, 1950, according to an agency news release. He and others were marched to a prison camp in North Korea, where he died of malnutrition the following March.

White's remains were among 38 returned in a postwar exchange that could not be identified and were buried as "Unknowns" at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu in 1956, the release said.

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In 2019, the unidentified remains were exhumed and sent to the agency's lab for analysis with means including DNA testing, which positively identified those belonging to White, the release said.

A date for the burial has yet to be set. White's family could not be reached for comment. A Des Moines Register article from 1953, reporting his death, identified his parents as Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd White of Belknap.

Noelle Alviz-Gransee is a breaking news reporter at the Des Moines Register. Follow her 

on Twitter @NoelleHannika or email her at NAlvizGransee@registermedia.com.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Remains of Ottumwa-area Korean War soldier being returned to Iowa