Marty O'Brien's Casualty Book

Chapter Three - The Korean War: A Statistical Inquiry

Chapter Three... Table of Contents

• Cutting Through the Maze
• Part I - Selected Hostile & Non-Battle Dead
• Part II - Army "Non-Battle" Deaths [1954]
• Part III - "Other" "Hostile"/"Non-Battle" Deaths
• Part IV - Synopsis of Parts I, II, and III
• Part V - DMZ & Offshore Post War Deaths
• Part VI - Hemorrhagic Fever
• Part VII - Analysis of 8,177 Body-Not-Recovered Cases
• Part VIII - The Sad Spectacle of Americans Blaming Americans
• Part IX - POW/MIA Issues
• Part X - Secret Wars
• Part XI - The Korean War In a Nutshell: A Synopsis of Parts I-X

Cutting Through the Maze

Over the years, there has been a marked degree of misunderstanding among veterans of the Korean War, myself included, as to the correct number of casualties incurred by United States Armed Forces. Issue after issue of "The Graybeards", the official magazine of the Korean War Veterans Association, is replete with erroneous information pertaining to casualties.

Incorrect casualty numbers also have appeared in the American Legion and VFW magazines in the past; however, both of these publications now are careful to present correct data.

The reason why there is so much confusion about Korean War statistics lies squarely with Department of defense and the Services; for they have not managed to collect all of the information into one officially validated data base. Nor had DoD, since 1980, provided updates on changes and casualty re-classifications to the National Archives and the public.

A continuing, annoying factor is the reluctance of the Services to reveal the full particulars of their casualties to DoD for publication. For example, until recently the Army had claimed that it did not have a list of 2,452 Army "Non-Battle" dead which the Army Surgeon General said had died in Korea.

In a letter to a friend of mine dated June 5, 1992, in response to his FOA request to the Surgeon General for information on Korean War era out-of-theater "other" deaths and in-theater "non-battle" deaths from injuries and diseases, Major General Frederick N. Bussey, MC, Acting TSG, told him this:

"We have conducted a thorough search of our Patient Administration Division Statistician’s files and no information germane to your inquiry for that period of time is available. We also contacted Headquarters, U.S. Army Health Services Command, Patient Administration System and Biostatistics Activity (PASBA), Fort Sam Houston, Texas with negative results. Based on the above search, it is our opinion that no records exist that are responsive to your request."

Almost two decades earlier, TSG had published a thorough, comprehensive study of U.S. Army casualty "hostile" and "non-battle" experience in the Korean War between 1950-52 based on Surgeon General records (See Part I, Exhibit 3). At the same time, the Department of the Army had on file a listing of all Army casualties on microfiche.

Search for the Truth

In order to get at the truth, I have been asking a lot of questions of a whole lot of people; and thanks to a number of friends across the country, I’ve been able to gather quite a lot of interesting information in my files. I don’t expect that I will ever get the complete story, but maybe I’ll get close—for I, and my friends, believe that we need to know the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Thus, thanks to their help and encouragement, this work is an honest attempt to sort out, reconcile and generally make some sense out of the myriad of statistics which have been published in the past.

All Sources Welcome:

To do this, I have relied on a number of other sources for data also, including the U.S. Congress, Library of Congress, National Archives, Department of Defense, Department of the Army, The American Battle Monuments Commission, authors, and researchers.

Some of the information I have uncovered is old; some of it is new; but, to my knowledge, the complete data has never been assembled into one place until now. A gratifying aspect of my research has been the satisfaction I have gotten being able to look up information for Korean War veterans across the country.

Veterans who are involved in gathering, checking names for Korean War memorials or who want details regarding buddies who didn’t come home from Korea. These are veterans who have been given the run-around in getting information from their government.

It is my sincere wish that this work will help them to better understand the statistics; however, I can neither confirm nor deny the reliability of any of the information that I have received from the various sources which are included in this booklet. I am only acting as a reporter.

Framework of the Study

In order to frame this study, I start with the premise that the DoD is held harmless to the extent that over the years they have published only what was reported to them by the Services. I have to assume that the 1994 Department of Defense numbers especially are correct, for they have had 40+ years to question and analyze the casualty data from the Services and get it right.

At the time the tabulations were prepared in the 1950s, the four branches used different standards for identifying the various casualty categories; sometimes, they differed within a Service. In the Army, for example, the Adjutant General and Surgeon General casualty records differed due to reporting variances; in his study on Army casualties, Frank A. Reister detailed these variances.

In one early report: the Army Adjutant General’s report showed 19,585 KIA (of which 251 were killed after capture), whereas, the Surgeon General’s report showed 19,353 KIA by matching serial numbers from AG and TSG records. In addition, whether a man was listed as "captured" or "missing" largely depended on the interpretation of the person who handled the casualty data.

The Air Force, particularly, insisted on a stronger standard of evidence before concluding that a man had "died while captured or interned" and preferred the category "died while missing" in the interim. For this reason, the DoD identified the 1954 findings as being "tentative."

Reliability of Data

I cannot vouch for the contents of any of the data either, or the veracity of any of the circumstances surrounding the descriptions, classifications, or other information with respect to losses and identifications. It will be necessary for the reader to ask the various agencies of the government directly; their addresses are listed in Appendix III to this booklet.

This study does not purport to have all the answers; it is, finally, a study based on materials presented to me as being true. Remember, this is one man’s analysis. If any reader has information which will add to, or clarify the understanding of the statistics; or if someone has reliable data that can correct or modify the information I have presented here, I would like to hear from him or her.

In preparing this booklet, at times I have had to repeat the same information in several of the parts; I felt this was necessary in order to better explain the material. I hope the reader will bear with me as he or she pours over the information. When your eyes begin to glaze over, take a break—grab a beer—but don’t quit.

Common Misconceptions

Here are some common misconceptions oft repeated by Korean War veterans which this booklet hopes to zero in on; they are outlined below briefly, and more thoroughly explained in the following parts to this booklet:

"54,000 Men Died in Korea"

One very common misconception is that "54,000" men died in Korea. This simply is not true. In the first place, according to the ABMC "Non-Hostile" list and other references, a small number of women also gave their lives in service in Korea; and many more worldwide during the Korean War era.

However, in the explanation of the Korean War in-theater statistics, the masculine gender will be used (for the most part) to denote both male and female losses. According to official 1994 DoD statistics, of 54,268 worldwide deaths during the period of the Korean War, June 25, 1950 to January 31, 1955, a total of 36,913 men died in-theater and 17,355 others died out-of-theater—for a total of 54,268. The superseded 1980 statistics show the total worldwide figure as 54,246—the number inscribed on the Washington, D.C. Korean War veterans memorial.

"8,000+ Men Are Missing in Action"

The second most common misconception is that 8,000+ men are "missing" from Korea; hopefully, this study will help to explain that:

(1) There are 8,177 body-not-recovered cases (BNR) listed by the Army’s Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii (CILHI); all of the names are memorialized on the marble panels of the Court of Honor at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. The men are "missing" in the sense that their bodies (not all MIA, but a mix of KIA, MIA, POW) did not come home from the war, or if remains were recovered they were not identified.

(2) Less than 10% of the remains have been recovered since 1954, and hundreds of them have not been identified to date due to the poor condition of the remains. See Exhibit 8.

(3) Today most of the men are believed to be dead or are presumed dead (PFOD)—although there is the possibility that an undetermined number of them may have been alive after the war, and some of them may still be alive. In March 1998, researchers discovered that four servicemen believed to be dead were listed in International Red Cross records as POWs. An investigation is underway. Work to recover and identify remains goes on slowly; the Pentagon’s POW/MIA office continually is updating their PMKOR (Personnel Missing—Korea) database.

"In Addition to 8,177 Missing Men, There are 7,140 POWs"

While each number in itself has a basis in fact, the portrayal of 8,177 and 7,140 numbers are two distinctly separate casualty categories that can be added together is incorrect. In 1954, there were 7,129 POWs + 11 men held in a special category; thus the true POW figure was 7,129. In 1953, a total of 4,428 men were repatriated just prior to the Armistice on July 27, 1953, leaving a total of 2,701 men who were believed to have died while in POW status. That number has since been reduced to 2,436. All of the POWs whose bodies were not recovered, or if recovered were not identified, are included in the 8,177 list.

"In Addition to 8,177 Missing Men, There are 389 POWs Still Alive"

While it may very well be true that a number of the men on the so-called "389" (now 388) list may still be alive, it is not correct to say that they are missing in addition to the men listed in the 8,177 list. Simply put, the current list of 388 Body-Not-Recovered cases is included in the larger list of 8,177 BNR names, which in turn is included in the larger 1994 DoD DIOR roster of 34,461 validated "Hostile" and "Non-Battle" names. Put another way, the 389 list is not a list in addition to the 8,177 list, nor is the 8,177 list a roster in addition to the roster 34,461 validated "Hostile" and "Non-Battle" casualties.

The Genesis of the "944" List

In an article in the New York Times on August 8, 1953, General James A. VanFleet, the Commander of the Eighth Army in Korea between April 11, 1951 and February 10, 1953, stated that he believed that a large percentage of the 8,000+ soldiers listed as "missing" were alive. Van Fleet, like General MacArthur, believed that we could have had a total victory in Korea; however, like MacArthur, he would get no political support. [General Van Fleet suffered a personal loss when his son, Air Force Captain James a. VanFleet Jr., was lost in a bombing raid over North Korea in April 1952.]

Shortly after VanFleet’s article was published, a list of 944 names was drawn up in September 1953 by the United States Command after Operation Big Switch and thereafter presented to the Communists for accountability; before the "944" list came into being, it was commonly believed that as many as 954 men may have been alive during and after Operation Big Switch. The list was not a list of un-repatriated POWs, nor was it a list of Americans who were known to have been left in the custody of the Communists.

More accurately, the list contained a mix of reported POW, KIA, and MIA who were classified as "missing and presumed dead." The UNC did not know with any certainty if any of the men on the list were still alive; but the overriding presumption was that there was a possibility that a number of the men may have been captured and held as hostages.

As stated previously, the reader must keep in mind that the list of 944 men was just a part of the larger list of 8,000+ men who were un-accounted for at the time; the "944" list included 610 Army; 19 Marine Corps; 312 Air Force; and three Navy personnel.

Just two and a half weeks after Big Switch, General Mark W. Clark, who wore two hats as Commander in Chief, Far East Command and Commander in Chief, UNC, announced that he had furnished the Communists on November 21, 1953 with a revision of the September 9, 1953 UNC original list of un-accounted for UN personnel. The new list increased the number of U.S. personnel by eight to a total of 952. By the end of December 1953, the number was revised to 965, by august 1954, the total had been reduced to 526.

The reductions came about because of continual efforts made by the U.S. that produced conclusive evidence of death for 418 men on the original list. This information is contained in a study prepared by the U.S. Congress, House Subcommittee on the Far East and the Pacific, "Return of American Prisoners of War Who Have Not Been Accounted for by the Communists (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1957), pp. 2-5 and a DoD release in June 1960.

By June 1955, the figure was reduced to 470 then 450 through partial accounting by the Chinese and North Koreans; it subsequently was increased to 452 based on re-examination of intelligence and information from repatriates. By June 1960, the figure had been reduced to 391.

In response to a question about a "398" list, the Defense Intelligence Agency had this to say on December 8, 1989: "There is no evidence to suggest that any U.S. personnel were not released from captivity in Korea. The 298 "known to have been left in North Korea after the war" is a misleading statement that unfortunately has gained public acceptance. Many of these men disappeared when their units were overrun by Communist forces, others were air crews believed to have parachuted from their aircraft. There is no evidence that 398 (or any other number) [of] Americans were held in captivity and not released at the end of hostilities."

The "389" List:

By 1992, the list had been reduced to 389. In 1994, a revised list containing 389 names was presented to the Communists by the UNC for further resolution. The casualty data for each man on the 389 list is included in Cole’s POW/MIA Issues, Volume 3, in narrative form; sources include UNC Military Armistice Command (UNCMAC) and CILHI. Since 1994, one Marine case has been resolved.

Breakdown of the Current List of 388

*Now believed to be 235 (unverified)

The Armistice Agreement

A provision of the armistice agreement stipulated that each side would render to the other side a full accounting of each and every POW whether alive or dead. However, the accounting has been accomplished largely through the efforts of U.S. Graves Registration Units and the U.S. Intelligence Agencies.

Insofar as it is known, all except 388 of the original list of 944 have been accounted for; all of the men have been presumed dead and are listed on the DoD DIOR roster of 8,177 names which in turn is listed in the DoD roster of 34,461 "Hostile" deaths. The possibility that a number of them may still be alive cannot be foreclosed. If our government has current information as to live sightings, or HOW, WHERE and under WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES any of them died, it isn’t telling.

Reports in the Press

Recent sensationalized reports in the national press have revisited the claim that "more than 910 American prisoners may have been left behind" in Korea; most of the material has already been published; a great deal of it is contained in Cole’s trilogy and Soldiers of Misfortune.

The recent media stories are based primarily on documents obtained from the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library as well as 1953 Congressional subcommittee reports which have been in the public domain for years. Recent reports in the international press tell of glimpses of middle aged white and black men in prisons and in labor gangs in North Korea, possibly 15. Another report claims that Czech Communists used American POWs to test chemical and biological war agents—such claims have drawn little official comment.

With respect to the "910" list, POW transfers to the former Soviet Union and other issues, see:

1. New York Times, "U.S. Knew in 1953 North Korea Held American POWs" by Philip Shenon, September 17, 1996.
2. US News and World Report, "Korea: An Old War’s Dark New Secrets," by Douglas Stanglin and Peter Cary, September 23, 1996;
3. Time, "Lost Prisoners of War: Sold Down the River?" September 30, 1996, and
4. Stars and Stripes, "Ghosts of Korean War Haunt America," by Arthur Spiegelman, October 6, 1996.

Footnote 1.
According to Soldiers of Misfortune (Page 320): "Two U.S. POWs from Korea are still alive in 1960 after almost a decade of slave labor in the Soviet Union." The authors noted that the State Department knew who the men were but refused to release their names; it is not known if the men were included in the original list of 944 names or the 1960 list of 391 names.

Document released by Congressman Dornan Summer 1987

Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense - October 1987

"Americans Unaccounted for in the Korean War"

"The US Government has ongoing efforts to achieve the fullest possible accounting of Americans missing and unaccounted for while serving their country In the case of Korea, 8,177 Americans are unaccounted for, including 389 who were listed as prisoners of war (POWs). Discussions with the North Koreans on the subject of unaccounted for personnel are conducted by the United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission (UNCMAC), which provides updated information to the Korean People’s Army/Chinese People’s Volunteers Military Armistice Commission (KPA/CPV/MAC) as it surfaces. The UNCMAC acts on behalf of all 16 nations, as well as the Republic of Korea, whose men fought and died in the defense of freedom in Korea.

For the past 34 years, the UNCMAC repeatedly has called upon the KPA/CPV to account for the 2,233 unaccounted for UNC personnel, including the 389 Americans, known to have been under enemy control during the Korean War. Also, from 1955 to 1957 the U.S. Ambassador to Czechoslovakia met in Geneva with Chinese representatives 77 times to discuss the accounting of missing Americans. In August 1982, the UNCMAC specifically requested, for the first time, the repatriation of any UNC remains buried in North Korea, even though the Armistice Agreements called for each side to return the other’s war dead.

In keeping with the provisions of the Armistice Agreements, the UNCMAC has returned the remains of CPV soldiers discovered in the Republic of Korea in the years following the war. In May 1987, the UNCMAC attempted to return the remains of 25 North Korean soldiers found in a wartime mass grave, but the KPA refused to accept them even though the KPA had on previous occasions accepted from the UNCMAC the bodies of post-war North Korean civilians who had drowned and washed ashore in the South.

In August 1986, the UNCMAC turned over to the KPA/CPVMAC a thick file of material regarding the locations of UNC remains. The detailed maps and charts pinpointed the burial sites associated with 13 former POW camps and a POW hospital, identified seven former UNC cemeteries in the North and listed 291 crash sites from which lost UNC airmen had not been recovered. In a spirit of compromise, the UNCMAC on July 30, 1987 formally offered to field a Multi-National Team comprised of representatives from UNC nations to assist the KPA in searching for UNC remains. This humanitarian initiative was rebuffed by the KPA.

*Other than the 4,439 U.S. POWs returned in 1953 and the 1,868 American remains returned in 1954, there has been little progress, despite U.S. and UNC efforts, on the part of the other side to resolve the cases of Americans still unaccounted for in North Korea. However, the lack of responsiveness thus far by the KPA on this issue will not blunt the determination of the U.S. Government to achieve the fullest possible accounting of Americans missing and unaccounted for as a result of the Korean War.

*DoD statistics in 1954: 3,597 Big Switch; 149 Little Switch and 692 evadess, escapees and men returned to military control (RMC).

Parts I through X follow: each part examines a separate piece of the Korean War casualty puzzle.

PART I

SELECTED HOSTILE AND NON-BATTLE DEAD

Sources:

Department of Defense:

(1) Roster of "Selected Korean Conflict Casualties" prepared by DoD’s Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, as of October 27, 1994, containing the names of:

(a) 33,652 Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force personnel whose deaths resulted from "Hostile" causes; and,

(b) 810 Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force personnel whose deaths resulted from "Non-Battle" causes; but no Army personnel whose deaths resulted from "Non-Battle" causes are listed.

(2) "Korean Conflict Casualty Summary," dated October 27, 1994. (See Exhibit No. 1.)

In October 1995, DoD DIOR amended the list and summary to reflect the deletion of one duplicate entry for the Marine Corps (reducing the "Hostile" death total to 33,651), and a reclassification of a "Hostile" casualty status received from the Air Force.

As of June 1996, the revised DoD roster of 34,461 names was available only at DoD DIOR. In a letter dated June 10, 1996, Theodore J. Hull, Archives Specialist, Center for Electronic Records, National Archives, informed me that: "We are aware that the Directorate for Information Operations and Reports (DIOR) continues to update and revise the Korean Conflict Casualty file database. We hope in the near future to obtain a copy of this updated file to replace the 1980 version already in our custody."

The "1980 version" (now outdated) is called the "Korean Conflict Casualty File (KCCF). It is the predecessor of the current 1994 roster of "Selected Korean Conflict Casualties" and casualty data base referred to above. There have been numerous changes due to corrections and re-classifications over the years. The following summary provides a comparison of published casualty changes for "Hostile" deaths (all Services):

Summary Comparison of Selected "Hostile" Casualties

"Hostile" Deaths	1954	1980	1994	Changes
Killed in Action	23,300	24,242	23,835	+535
Died of Wounds	2,501	2,464	2,535	+ 34
Died While Missing	5,127	4,521	4,845	-282
Died While Captured	2,701	2,415	2,436	-265
Totals:	33,629	33,642	33,651	+22

Content of DoD’s 1994 Roster of Selected Casualties

A description of selected fields and codes pertaining to the roster of 34,461 "Selected Korean Conflict Casualties" is contained in Exhibit No. 2. The COMP (Component) descriptions, insofar as they relate to Army "Hostile" listings, apparently are in error and I have reported the error to DoD DIOR; the correct component codes should be: V=Regular Army (RA prefix); R=Enlisted Reserve (ER prefix); G=National Guard (NG prefix); and Z=Draftees (US prefix).

Army and Air Force Data:

As stated above, no Army "Non-Battle" deaths are listed in the DoD DIOR roster. According to Frank Reister’s "Battle Casualties and Medical Statistics: U.S. Army Experience in the Korean War," published by the Surgeon General, Department of the Army, 1973, the Army experienced 2,452 "Non-Battle" deaths in the Korean Operation (See Exhibit No. 3 for a breakdown of deaths from injuries and diseases).

The 2,452 statistic is acknowledged by DoD DIOR and published in official tables (See Exhibit No. 4, which shows 810 Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force personnel + 2,452 Army personnel = 3,262 "Non-Battle" deaths and "Other" deaths). Some of the Air Force "Non-Battle" deaths also are not listed in the DoD DIOR roster.

With respect to Air Force casualties, on June 11, 1990, a document identified as being sent by "AFMPC/DPMC", entitled "Korean Conflict: 25 Jun 50-27 Jul 53" was released to a friend through former Senator William S. Cohen’s office, under a Freedom of Information request. The list identified 315 deaths attributed to the Korean Operation, some 69.84% of which were due to "aircraft accident," plus 30 deaths not counted as Korean Operation casualties. The 20 deaths related to an aircraft out of Ashiya AB, Japan, 26 Sep 50.

The casualty list Air Force Non Battle Deaths - Korea 1950 which follows shortly includes the names of the 315 Korean Operation deaths. All but 22 names are included in the DoD DIOR roster—they are identified by an "x" placed in front of each name.

Freedom of Information Request

The roster of "Selected Korean Conflict Casualties" and the "Korean Conflict Casualty Summary" referred to above were obtained by the author from DoD DIOR under letters dated October 27, 1994 and December 21, 1994, respectively, as a result of two requests that I made under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

The October production provided statistics extracted from DoD’s 1994 Korean Conflict casualty data base. The December 1994 letter provided reasons why DoD found it necessary to update the 1980 KCCF. In a cover letter, Roger D. Jorstad, Director, Manpower Management Information Division, DoD DIOR, explained that: "The record data has been revised in order to correct erroneous data, reexamine casualty status, and to include an accounting of those individuals who died from non-hostile causes for all Services except the Army. Dates of death range from 1950 to 1955. Of the 641 deaths with casualty dates after July 2, 1953, the majority are classified as hostile, died while missing (presumptive finding of death). Most of these deaths were Air Force personnel."

In his October 1994 letter, he explained why the 2,452 Army Non-Battle deaths incurred in-theater, and 17,355 "Other" deaths that were incurred outside of the Korean combat zone are not included in the current 1994 DoD casualty base: "The Korean Conflict data base was designed to hold data similar to the official Department of Defense Southeast Asia Casualty data base. Neither data base includes information on worldwide casualties incurred outside of the combat zone. Accordingly, casualty figures attributed to these conflicts, as published [by DoD] are indicative of in-theater deaths only. The casualty data in our present Korean file is coded to indicate non-hostile and hostile in-theater deaths for the Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force. Differences in numbers and casualty types, between our current file and the [1980] Archives file, resulted from a re-examination and revision of file records as new information was received from the Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force casualty offices. Unfortunately, we have been unable to accomplish a similar validation of the Army records. The Army figures, all coded hostile, remain as originally submitted in the 1970s."

In an August 1995 letter to another Korean War veteran who helped with this project, Director Jorstad advised that: "…we are not aware of any consolidated, detailed casualty listing from which to validate out-of-theater Korean Conflict casualties."

In a letter to the author dated October 3, 1995, Director Jorstad advised that: "To our knowledge, the Army is not currently reconciling army casualty listings, either held by us or the National Archives. However, interest may dictate a concerted effort in the future. Reister’s "non-battle" figure of 2,452, although published, remains to be validated against individual records, if available. Your questions concerning "non-battle" deaths need to be addressed to the Army. Accounting for or reconstructing every record containing information about individuals who died in a "non-battle" status may be virtually impossible. Entries in our current data base represent the best effort to categorize Korean Conflict casualties and undoubtedly, will change in the future."

In December 1995, I notified Director Jorstad that a microfiche containing the names of 30,073 Army casualties, including Non-Battle deaths, was available at DA. In a letter dated December 21, 1995, Director Jorstad advised me that: "Our office will examine the subject source of Army casualty information described in your letter. However, the army casualty office has responsibility for the reconciliation of casualties and status and for the submission of additions and changes to our office. To date, we are not aware of any action to address a project of this nature, but if initiated our office would certainly support the effort."

Wounded in Action

The Surgeon General, Department of the Army, does not have a comprehensive roster of the total of personnel who were wounded in action (WIA). No records are maintained of wounded who were treated in the field and who did not require hospitalization. For example, one man told me he had been slightly wounded four times, but no records were kept. In each instance he was patched up at an aid station and sent back on the line. Thus, he was never awarded a Purple Heart.

According to DoD DIOR, neither the current data base nor the 1980 KCCF data base contain any listing of personnel wounded in action. The official accounting is: 105,519 WIA, of which 2,535 died of wounds (DOW).

Important Notice

It is important to remember that the DoD DIOR data was received by me in October 1994, revised in October 1995. Changes may have not been made since. Undoubtedly, in the future there will be more changes in the mix of the statistics as additional information is received and reported by the Services. The next scheduled publication is due in 1999. As remains are returned from North Korea, it is very porbable that a number of those who now are listed as "Died While Missing" or "Died While POW" will be reclassified as "Killed in Action" or "Died of Wounds."

Air Force Non-Battle Deaths - Korea 1950/1951

Non-Battle Deaths - Korea 1950
[Reminder: All but 22 names are included in the DoD DIOR roster—they are identified by an "x" placed in front of each name.]

Aircraft out of Ashiya AB Japan
(not counted on this list as Korean Conflict casualties)

Non-Battle Deaths - Korea - 1951
[Reminder: All but 22 names are included in the DoD DIOR roster—they are identified by an "x" placed in front of each name. ]

Non-Battle Deaths - Korea - 1952
[Reminder: All but 22 names are included in the DoD DIOR roster—they are identified by an "x" placed in front of each name.]

Non-Battle Deaths - Korea - 1953
[Reminder: All but 22 names are included in the DoD DIOR roster—they are identified by an "x" placed in front of each name.]

EXHIBIT 1 - Korean Conflict Casualty Summary

CASUALTY TYPE	USA	USN	USMC	USAF	TOTAL
Hostile - Killed in Action	20,010	303	3,323	199	23,835
Hostile - Died of Wounds	1,956	27	536	16	2,535
Hostile - Died While Missing	3,358	144	384	959	4,845
Hostile - Died While POW	2,385	1	26	24	2,436
Hostile - Total	27,709	475	4,269	1,198	33,651
Non-Battle - Died Immediately	0	0	0	290	290
Non-Battle - Died of Injuries	0	0	0	7	7
Non-Battle Death	0	173	339	1	513
Non-Battle - Total	0	173	339	298	810
TOTAL - Hostile/Non-Battle	27,709	648	4,608	1,496	34,461

Source: Korean Conflict Casualty Data Base, Washington Headquarters Services
Prepared by: Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information, Operations and Reports, October 27, 1994.  Revised 10-3-95.

EXHIBIT 2 - Selected Korean Conflict Casualties

EXHIBIT 2a - Description of Selected Fields & Codes  (Korean Conflict)

EXHIBIT 3 - US Deaths from Disease and Non-Battle Injury in Korea (The "Reister Report")
The following information is extracted from Battle Casualties and Medical Statistics: U.S. Army Experience in the Korean War by Frank Reister, published by the Surgeon General, Department of the Army, 1973:

SURGEON GENERAL DATA [June 25, 1950-July 27, 1953]

Footnote 1: According to Reister, in terms of annual rates per 1,000 average strength, the hospital admission count for "Non-Battle" diseases and injuries was 570 per 1,000 for the complete period of the war.  For purposes of comparison, it is interesting to note that the count for KIA was 30 per 1,000 and 121 per 1,000 for WIA; all rates are below World War II levels.  Reister noted that:

"All of these rates are lower than the corresponding annual rates for the June 1944-May 1945 period of operations in the European theater during World War II, where rates of 44 killed in action, 152 wounded admissions, and 859 DNBI admissions per 1,000, respectively, occurred."

Deaths occurred before or after admissions to medical treatment facilities: included carded for record only (CRO) cases, as specifically required by appropriate regulations.  CRO cases generally included all non-battle cases which were received "dead on arrival"; certain "non-battle" patients with conditions which might possibly result in a claim against the U.S. government; and all venereal disease cases.

Footnote 2: The Army "Non-Battle" deaths are not maintained in the Department of Defense's "Selected Korean Conflict Casualties" roster or data base; since 1954, the Department of the Army has reported 27,709 validated "Hostile" cases and zero validated "Non-Battle" deaths to DoD.  A total of 2,392 Army "Non-Battle" deaths are, however, included in a 1954 microfiche list maintained by the Army; since 1954, a small number of these casualties have been re-classified [see Part II].

Footnote 3: This category includes deaths from (a) acute poliomyelitis, (b) infectious encephalitis and (c) epidemic hemorrhagic fever.  [See Part VI.]

EXHIBIT 4 - DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

PRINCIPAL WARS IN WHICH THE UNITED STATES PARTICIPATED
U.S. MILITARY PERSONNEL SERVING AND CASUALTIES

			CASUALTIES	CASUALTIES	CASUALTIES
WAR/CONFLICT	BRANCH OF SERVICE	NUMBER SERVING	BATTLE DEATHS	OTHER DEATHS	WOUNDS NOT MORTAL
World War I 1917-1918	Army (G) Navy Marines TOTAL	4,057,101 599,051 78,839 4,734,991	50,510     431   2,461 53,402	55,868   6,856      390 63,114	193,663       819     9,520 204,002