Lansing State Journal
LESLIE – More than 70 years after his combat death, a Korean War soldier from Leslie is coming home.
The remains of U.S. Army Sgt. William Cavender, 20, were contained in boxes turned over to the U.S. by North Korea in 2018, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said Friday in a news release. U.S. Army Sgt. William E. Cavender, of Leslie, was killed during the Korean War. His remains were identified in May 2020, but the agency withheld an announcement until after Cavender's family could be fully briefed about the identification, the agency said. Cavendar was a member of Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action on Nov. 28, 1950 after his unit was attacked by enemy forces near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea, the accounting agency said. A rosette will be placed next to Cavender's name in the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu to denote he is accounted for.
Advertisement DPAA scientists used anthropological analysis and circumstantial evidence to identify his remains. The finding was confirmed by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System through mitochondrial DNA analysis. North Korea turned over more than 55 boxes of remains of U.S. servicemembers following the July 2018 summit between then-President Donald Trump and North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-Un. The remains went first to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on Aug. 1, 2018 before being transferred to the accounting office's laboratory for identification. Cavender is the second Michigan Korean War veteran to be accounted for since the remains were turned over to the U.S. in 2018.
U.S. Army Cpl. Dale Wright, 19, of Flint, was killed in the same area of North Korea in December 1950, the accounting office said. His remains were identified in April 2020. Cavender will be buried in his hometown on a yet-to-be-determined date, the accounting office said.
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