Remains of U.S. soldier killed in Korean War returned after painstaking DNA analysis

Record ID: 1120531

  • Title: Remains of U.S. soldier killed in Korean War returned after painstaking DNA analysis
  • Date: 7th June 2018
  • Summary: LA MIRADA, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (RECENT) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) SYLVIA ARVISO RAMOS, 60, GREAT NIECE OF U.S. ARMY CPL. ALBERT E. QUINTERO, SAYING: "You know who would have thought that his remains would appear 60 plus years later and all this was going to still be occurring with North Korea. So there's a lot of mixed emotions, a lot of anguish, fear for other
  • Embargoed: 21st June 2018 21:28
  • Keywords: remains Donald J. Trump Korean War summit repatriation North Korea soldiers cemetery Kim Jong-un DNA Albert E. Quintero United States
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, LONG BEACH AND LA MIRADA, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES/KOREA
  • City: LOS ANGELES, LONG BEACH AND LA MIRADA, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES/KOREA
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA0048JBABLZ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: PLEASE NOTE EDIT CONTAINS CONVERTED 4:3 MATERIAL
    67 years after he went missing in action on the Korean Peninsula, U.S. Army Corporal. Albert E. Quintero was finally laid to rest last month at a military funeral in Long Beach, California.
    Quintero, a first generation Mexican-American, was only 23 when he was drafted to fight alongside the U.S.-led United Nations forces in the Korean War in February of 1950.
    Ten months later, Quintero was listed as missing in action after he was deployed to the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea, where the U.S.-led forces were ambushed by Chinese forces.
    With no information as to his whereabouts, the U.S. Army declared Quintero dead on New Year's Eve, 1953.
    Quintero's remains were identified using DNA testing. They were found among Korean War remains that were excavated in North Korea in 2001.
    Three of Quintero's surviving nieces, although they had never met their late great uncle, were overcome with emotion when his remains were returned after years of searching and wondering whatever happened to him.
    "I kept praying that we would get some answer of what happened to him," said Linda Arviso, 67, who lives in La Mirada, California.
    "He's finally home and I don't know why it took so long or whatever but I'm glad for the DNA and for them trying to help find him. I feel like it is relief, I just feel happier," she added, after waiting almost 10 years for the results of a DNA test to come through. Quintero's mother died in 1976.
    The Korean War, which ran from 1950-1953 claimed the lives of more than 50,000 Americans and millions of Koreans and ended in an armed truce, not a peace treaty. At present there are more than 8,000 U.S. troops unaccounted for.
    The parties fighting in the Korean War - North and South Korea, China, and U.S.-led United Nations forces - reached an agreement in 1992 for the repatriation of soldiers' remains.
    "Who would have thought that his remains would appear 60 plus years later and all this was going to still be occurring with North Korea. So there's a lot of mixed emotions, a lot of anguish, fear for others that have boys that are in the service now that will be joining the service. It's just so much, so much inside personally that I can't even put into words, it's just like a whirlpool," added Sylvia Arviso Ramos, 60, another great niece of Quintero.
    But for years, the repatriation has been mostly one-sided as North Korea has shown no interest in receiving the bodies of its fallen troops.
    Most of the bodies that have been handed over were remains of U.S. troops found in the North and dug up with the help of American experts.
    Linda Arviso complained that ongoing tensions with the international community and North Korea had made the process difficult.
    "For a while they were giving the bones for the DNA and then they stopped, they stopped. And to this day there are still so many bones that are not found yet or people, they're still hoping that they'll get more because North Korea is not letting anything go. They're really tight about everything," she said.
    "These veterans need their closure, they do. And a lot of family members think they don't even know me, I don't know them but every person needs that closure, they deserve that," added Sylvia Arviso Ramos.
    As a historic summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Korean Leader Kim Jong Un approaches, the Arviso sisters hope a new diplomatic relationship will make it easier for families to bring home their missing loved ones.
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