Benjamin Ashford|18-year-old soldier from West Virginia identified after he went missing during Korean War

The Benjamin Ashfordremains of a 18-year-old soldier from West Virginia who fought in the Korean War have been found, more than seven decades after he went missing, a U.S. military agency announced on Friday.  

U.S. Army Cpl. Ray K. Lilly, 18, of Matoaka, West Virginia, went missing while his unit was fighting on Nov. 2, 1950. His unit,  L Company, 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division was fighting in Unsan, North Korea, when he disappeared. Several prisoners of war reported seeing Corporal Lilly at prisoner of war camp #5, but officials weren't able to determine his whereabouts. 

In 1953, North Korea handed over remains of service members to the United States. Among those returned was an unknown set of remains – designated as "Unknown X-14682." These remains were eventually buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. 

In 2018, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), a military agency that aims to provide a full accounting for American missing personnel, announced a plan to disinter the remains of 652 unidentified service members from the Korean War. A year later the agency sent Unknown X-14682 to the lab for testing. Using dental records, anthropological analysis, mitochondrial DNA analysis and circumstantial evidence, investigators were able to determine in September of last year that the unknown remains were those of Corporal Lilly.  

Lilly had died sometime in 1950 or 1951 while being held in a Korean prisoner of war camp, DPAA said. His family was notified and he will be buried in Princeton, West Virginia.

Remains of World War II airmen from Chicago and Michigan were also identified this week eight decades after being reported missing. Since the start of 2024, DPAA has identified the remains of 29 World War II veterans, 5 Korean War veterans and one Vietnam War veteran.  

In:
• World War II
• Vietnam
• United States Military
• North Korea
• Germany