The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced today
that U.S. Army Cpl. Joshua Corruth, 20, of Pompano Beach, Florida,
killed during the Korean War, was accounted for March 13, 2025.
Corruth's family recently received their full briefing on his
identification, therefore, additional details on his identification can
be shared.
In October 1950, Corruth was a member of Company K, 3rd Battalion, 24th
Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, Eighth U.S. Army. He was
reported missing in action on Oct. 8 near Kwang-ju, Republic of Korea.
The U.S. Army did not receive any information during or after the war to
indicate Corruth was ever held as a prisoner of war and issued a
presumptive finding of death as of Dec. 31, 1952. On Jan. 16, 1956, he
was declared non-recoverable.
In the fall of 1953, during Operation Glory, a team from the 114th
Quartermaster Graves Registration Service Company recovered a set of
unknown remains near a temple in the South Korean village of Tae
Jung-ri. Those remains were transported to the United Nations Memorial
Cemetery Tanggok for processing. Unable to associate the remains with
any missing service member, they were designated as Unknown X-6050 and
later transferred to the Central Identification Unit at Kokura, Japan,
for reprocessing. In late 1956 all unidentified remains, including
X-6050, were buried as Unknowns in the National Memorial Cemetery of the
Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.
In July 2018, the DPAA proposed a plan to disinter 652 Korean War
Unknowns from the Punchbowl. In December, DPAA personnel disinterred
Unknown X-6050 as part of Phase One of the Korean War Disinterment Plan
and sent the remains to the DPAA laboratory for analysis.
To identify Corruth’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and
anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence.
Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA analysis, mitochondrial genome sequencing data, and nuclear single nucleotide polymorphism.
Corruth’s name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the
Punchbowl, along with the others who are still missing from the Korean
War. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been
accounted for.
Corruth will be buried in Lake Worth, Florida, on April 23, 2026.
