NY National Guard provides funeral honors to Korean War MIA Soldier returning home after 70 years

MEDIA ADVISORY

ELMIRA, N.Y. (05/26/2022) — Nine members of the New York Army National Guard will render honors in Elmira, New York, May 27, 2022 to honor a Korean War Soldier whose remains were unidentified for 70 years after he fell in combat.

Media are invited by the family to cover the funeral service.

WHAT: Funeral service for Korean War MIA Soldier Cpl. Robert Agard, from Buffalo, N.Y.

WHO: Members of the New York Army National Guard Military Forces Honor Guard, based in Binghamton, N.Y.

WHEN: Friday, May 27 at 11 a.m.

WHERE: Forest Lawn Memorial Park, 563 Jerusalem Hill Road, Elmira, N.Y. 14901

Media Opportunity: Imagery of funeral honors, including the firing of honors, presentation of the flag to next of kin and rendering of taps. For more detailed information regarding funeral services, contact Kevin McInerney 607-733-6271, funeral director at the McInerney Funeral Home, Elmira, N.Y.

Background:

Army Corporal Robert Agard

Cpl. Robert Agard of Buffalo, New York, will be laid to rest at a family plot at Forest Lawn Memorial Park 70 years after his death in the Korean War.Agard was killed July 19, 1950 near Taejon, South Korea during the Battle of Taejon and his remains were unidentified for 70 years.

Assigned as a scout with the 24th Reconnaissance Company, 24th Infantry Division, Agard was part of a defensive battle between U.S. and North Korean forces, one of the earliest battles of the Korean War.

The entire 24th Division made a stand at Taejon against numerically and technically superior North Korean forces from July 14-21 before withdrawing.

Agard, a private 1st class at the time of his death, volunteered for a patrol to investigate enemy presence along the road south of Taejon on July 19 to prepare for the division breakout.

While scouting forward of American lines, Agard and his 11-man patrol came under fire. Four were wounded and the remaining personnel were never seen again.

Army Graves Registration Service recovered five sets of remains in December 1950 and buried them in the United Nations Military Cemetery in Taejon. Four of the five were identified as members of the 24th Reconnaissance Company patrol lost in July 1950.

Agard's parents, living in the Finger Lakes community of Penn Yan, were notified of his status as missing in action and presumed dead as the fifth set of remains, lacking identification, were sent to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at the Punchbowl Crater in Honolulu, Hawaii for interment as a Korean War Unknown.

The Army declared Agard deceased in 1953 and his remains unrecoverable in 1956.Agard's remains were strongly considered to be the fifth remains of the 1950 recovery and the unidentified remains were exhumed from the Punchbowl in June 2019. Identification was confirmed through dental and DNA examination conducted by the DNA testing is performed at the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, part of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

His remains were positively accounted for September 29, 2020 with notification to Agard's cousin, his living next of kin, Gloyd "Dean" Kimball, in Longmeadow Massachusetts.

His family ties at the time of his death included Buffalo, Ithaca, Penn Yan and Elmira.Robert Agard was born November 29, 1930 and enlisted in the U.S. Army in August, 1948. Following training at Fort Benning, Georgia, he was assigned to the 24th Infantry Division as part of the occupation forces in Japan.

Rushed to the Korean peninsula in July 1950 following the North Korean invasion, the 24th Infantry Division had already fought for two straight weeks before establishing a defense at Taejon, a critical transportation hub between between Seoul and Taegu.

The division, outnumbered two to one, fought a delaying action to allow for other American divisions to establish a perimeter defense at Pusan, along the southeast coast of the Korean peninsula.

The North Koreans initially attacked with two infantry divisions and eventually were forced to commit an armored division against the undermanned 24th Infantry.

After five days of fighting, Taejon was surrounded by North Korean forces, attacking into Taejon on July 19, where the 24th Infantry Division's forward command post intended a final stand.

Agard was killed the night before his division withdrew from Taejon, a tactical defeat but strategic success in providing time for U.S. forces to establish a defensive perimeter at Pusan.

The 24th Infantry Division lost almost 1,000 men killed, nearly 230 wounded and another 2,400 missing at Taejon, including their division commander.

Agard's name was previously 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.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency lists 7,544 missing in action still unrecovered or unidentified from the Korean War as of April 1, 2022. Since 1982, 612 remains have been identified and accounted.

New York Army National Guard Military Forces Honor Guard

The New York Army National Guard conducted 8,235 military funerals in 2021, according to 1st Lt. Melisa Rosario, the honor guard officer-in-charge. That was up from 7,122 services in 2020.

There are 40 Soldiers assigned to the funeral honors mission full time. Another 59 Soldiers are available part time to provide funeral honors.

A 2000 federal law mandates that former members of the U.S. military who served on active duty or in the reserves and were not dishonorably discharged are eligible for a military funeral.

At a minimum, these honors are provided by a two-person team that plays taps with a bugle and folds and presents an American flag to the family.

Retired military personnel and those who passed away while on active duty are entitled to honors that involve upwards of nine personnel and can include a rifle firing party and pallbearers.

Military funeral honors are requested through the funeral home that handles arrangements for a family.

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