Californian soldier accounted for after over 70 years

LOMPOC, Calif. – After over 70 years, the remains of Army Cpl. Carmen Carrillo of Lompoc are coming home to the Central Coast.

In Spring of 1951, Carrillo was serving as a member of Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division.

On May 17, he was reported as missing in action following fighting against the Chinese People's Volunteer Forces in Gangwon Hongchun in the Republic of Korea.

The U. S. Army issued a presumptive finding of death on Dec. 31, 1953 when his remains were not recovered and there was no record of him as a prisoner of war.

Six sets of remains believed to be U. S. service members were transferred to the United States by the Korean Ministry of National Defense Agency for Killed in Action Recovery and Identification in 2013.

Those remains were disinterred on Sep. 22, 2021 and transferred to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii for analysis.

Carrillo's remains were confirmed using dental and anthropological analysis as well as mitochondrial DNA analysis by scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System.

Corporal Carmen Carrillo was officially accounted for on Feb. 3, 2023 and his family notified.

Now, Cpl. Carrillo's name on the American Battle Monuments Commission's Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu has a new rosette next to his name indicating he has now been accounted for.

For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at 800-892-2490.

For more information about the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, visit their website here.