A Maine soldier killed in the Korean War has been identified and will receive a burial 75 years later.
The military says Corporal Oscar L. Sprague of Milbridge was 22 at the time of his death in Yongsan, South Korea, in 1950.
He was reported missing at the time, but the Army issued a presumptive finding of death in 1953.
Sprague’s remains were among those recovered from a shallow grave in the region that were transferred and interred in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu in 1956.
In 2018, Sprague’s remains were disinterred from the Punchbowl with about 650 others in a proposal from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
The remains were sent to a Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency laboratory for analysis. DNA and other identifying technology was used to identify Sprague.
His name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, 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.
Sprague’s family recently received their full briefing on his identification. He will be buried in his hometown of Milbridge in September.
