Ohio soldier accounted for from North Korea, DPAA announces

WASHINGTON, D.C. (WTVG) - The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Monday that an Ohio soldier has been accounted for from Korea.

DPAA announced that U.S. Army Cpl. Clark E. Worline, 20, of Dupont, Ohio who was missing from the Korean War, was accounted for on Sept. 9, 2022.

In the fall of 1950, Worline was a member of C Company 2nd Chemical Mortar Battalion, 8th U.S. Army. He was reported missing in action on Nov. 26 after fighting against the Chinese People’s Volunteer Forces near Sinjang, North Korea.

DPAA says while it was possible Worline was captured, there was no record or eyewitness accounts of him being held as a prisoner of war. It was also not unusual for prisoners who died to be unknown to other captives.

According to DPAA, in the fall of 1954 during Operation GLORY, 495 sets of remains from burial grounds around Prisoner of War Camp #5 were returned to United Nations Command and all but 38 were identified.

Those remains were buried as Unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu in 1956.

DPAA says in August 2019, Operation GLORY was disinterred from the Punchbowl as part of the planned exhumation of Operation GLORY burials from Camp #5 and transferred to the DPAA Laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii for analysis.

Scientists from DPAA identified Worline through dental and anthropological analysis as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA analysis.

According to DPAA, Worline’s name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are missing from the Korean War. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Worline will be buried in Dupont, Ohio on a date that is yet to be determined. For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at 1-800-892-2490.

To see the most up-to-date statistics on DPAA recovery efforts for those unaccounted for from the Korean War, click here.

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