LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A U.S. soldier killed in the Korean War will be interred at a Kentucky cemetery this month.
Army Cpl. Donald L. Menken, a Kentucky native, was a member of the 3rd Infantry Division during the Korean War. At the age of 21, he was reported missing on June 10, 1953 after being wounded by artillery shell fragments while his unit was guarding an outpost on a main road to Seoul.
Cpl. Donald Menken.
Menken nor his remains were found, and he was declared killed in action June 11, 1954 and non-recoverable in January 1956.
According to a news release, the American Graves Registration Service Group couldn't find any remains that could be identified as Menken. He also wasn't a prisoner of war (POW) returned in the summer of 1953.
The American Graves Registration Service Group found an unknown set of remains, which were buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.
Those remains became part of a project by the Defense POW/MIA Agency to identify 652 Korean War unknown burials in 2018. The remains were confirmed to be Menken in Feb. 2, 2022 from circumstantial evidence, along with dental, anthropological and mitochondrial DNA analysis.
Menken, who was from Whitesburg, will be interred May 14 at Green Acres Cemetery. A graveside service will be performed by Everidge Funeral Home.
More than 7,500 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War.
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