Ottumwa-native who died as Korean War prisoner of war accounted for

OTTUMWA, Iowa (KYOU) - An Ottumwa-native who died at the age of 20 as a prisoner of war during the Korean War, has been accounted for.

In a press release on Tuesday, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said U.S. Army Cpl. Delbert L. White was accounted for on September 27, 2022. The family only recently received their full briefing.

White was a member of D Company, 2nd Engineer (Combat) Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division in late 1950 when he and many other soldiers were captured by the Chinese People’s Volunteer Forces as they tried to block the CPVF so the rest of the 2nd Infantry Division could escape south.

Conflicting reports said White had died in February or March 1951 in POW Camp #5.

After remains from Camp #5 were returned to the United Nations in 1954, it was determined White was among 38 that were unable to be identified. Those remains were buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu in 1956.

The DPAA’s Korean War Disinterment Project in 2019 exhumed the remains from Camp #5 and transferred them to a lab in Hawaii for analysis.

The DPAA said scientists used dental, anthropological analysis, and mitochondrial DNA analysis to identify White’s remains.

White is expected to be buried in Ottumwa at a later date.

See his full profile here.

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