The remains of 23-year-old U.S. Army Sergeant Howard Malcolm of Mt. Vernon have now been identified and are being returned home nearly 52 years after he died as a prisoner of war in North Korea in August 1951.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) initially confirmed the identification had been made on October 25th of last year as part of the ‘No One Left Behind’ program. His remains are being flown to Lambert International Airport and are scheduled to arrive at 5:15 on July 7th when a procession will be held to return his remains to the Sutherland-Rankin Funeral Home in Salem where visitation will be held on Tuesday, July 11th from 9 to 10:30 am. The procession will then proceed to Bethel Memorial Cemetery in Mt. Vernon for graveside services at 11:00 next Tuesday morning with full military honors officiated by the military chaplain and detail accorded.
Immediate survivors include his niece Theresa Slater and husband Loyd of Salem, nephew Rick Malcolm and wife Michelle of Odin, IL, and sister-in-law Martha Malcolm of Salem, IL. along with several great nieces and nephews.
Malcolm was born July 11, 1928, in Belle Rive. He was the son of Robert Clayton and Anna Loreetta Ramsey Malcolm. In addition to his parents, he is preceded in death by his siblings, Robert “Bobby” Malcolm, Melvin Malcolm, and Jeannine Malcolm Robertson.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency says in late 1950, Malcolm was a member of Headquarters Company, Ninth Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action on Dec. 1, 1950, after his unit’s withdrawal from Kunu-ri to Sunchon, in North Korea. In 1953, several POWs returned during Operation Big Switch reported Malcolm had been a prisoner of war and died in August 1951 at Prisoner of War Camp #5.
In the late summer and fall of 1954, during Operation Glory, North Korea returned remains reportedly recovered from Pyoktong, also known as Prisoner of War Camp #5, to the United Nations Command. However, Malcolm’s name did not appear on any of the transfer rosters and the Central Identification Unit in Kokura, Japan, did not associate any repatriated remains with him. Malcolm was determined non-recoverable in October 1955.
Then in July 2018, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency proposed a plan to disinter 652 Korean War Unknowns from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu. In August 2019, the DPAA disinterred Unknown X-14357, a set of remains returned during Operation Glory, as part of Phase Two of the Korean War Disinterment Plan and sent the remains to the DPAA laboratory for analysis.
To identify Malcolm’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis as well as chest radiograph comparison. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.
Malcolm’s name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, along with the others who are still missing from the Korean War. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
