Agency identifies remains of Army corporal, Korean War POW -

Honor guardsmen assigned to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), render honors during an honorable carry at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, Jan. 27, 2020. Cases containing possible remains of U.S. service members, were recovered from various sites in the Republic of the Philippines and will be examined by forensic anthropologists and odontologists at DPAA’s skeletal identification laboratory. (MCS1 Tyler Thompson/Navy)

Researchers have identified the remains of a 22-year-old Army sergeant who died as a prisoner of war during the Korean War.

Sgt. Lawrence J. Robidoux, of Cumberland, Rhode Island, served in B Company, 1st Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division in November 1950 when he was reported missing in action after his unit withdrew from Ipsok, North Korea, according to a release from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

The agency identified the remains on January 24 and released the information on March 21.

In 1953, several POWs returned during Operation Big Switch reported Robidoux had been a prisoner of war and died in May 1951 at Prisoner of War Camp #5, according to the release.

A year later, during Operation Glory, North Korean officials returned remains recovered from Pyoktong, or POW Camp #5. But officials did not associate any of those remains with Robidoux.

In December 2019, the agency disinterred remains designated Unknown X-14646 returned as part of Operation Glory that had been buried in a section for unknown remains at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii, also known as the Punchbowl.

Robidoux’s name is etched on the American Battle Monuments Commission’s Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. A rosette will be added next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for, according to the release.

Robidoux will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. A date has not yet been determined.