Soldier who went missing during Korean War accounted for

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Soldier who went missing during Korean War accounted for

By MARK PRATT
September 24, 2022

BOSTON (AP) — A soldier from Massachusetts who went missing during the Korean War and was later reported to have died in a prisoner of war camp has been accounted for using modern scientific techniques, military officials said.

Army Cpl. Joseph J. Puopolo, 19, of East Boston, was accounted for in August, according to a statement Friday from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

It was the news his family — including his now 99-year-old sister Elizabeth Fiorentini — has been awaiting for decades, Fiorentini’s grandson and Puopolo’s grandnephew, Richard Graham, said in a telephone interview Saturday.

“We have all heard about him, and we all knew of him, and we all knew he was a war hero. We always hoped we’d find him,” he said. “But I never thought my grandmother would be here for it.”

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/boston-massachusetts-missing-in-action-04eeb3797778594751b6d4b8443d88d4


This undated photo provided by the U.S. Defense Department shows Cpl. Joseph J. Puopolo. The solider from Massachusetts who went missing during the Korean War and was later reported to have died in a prisoner of war camp has been accounted for using modern scientific techniques, military officials said. Puopolo, 19, of East Boston, was accounted for in August, according to a statement Friday, Sept. 23, 2022, from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. (U.S. Defense Department via AP)

[COL Mustard]

1. I'm glad we were able to identify him

I'm also glad he still has family alive to mourn him and to celebrate this closure.