The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office has identified the remains of Marine Pfc. Richard S. Gzik, who was stationed at Camp Pendleton and served in the Korean War. Gzik was killed in action in North Korea in 1952, but his remains were only identified this year, according to a Pentagon news release.
Gzik was a member of the M Battery, 11th Artillery Regiment, 1st Marine Division when it came under attack December 2, 1950 near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. After Gzik was killed, his body was buried in the area, and was unable to be retrieved until four years later:
In 1954, United Nations and Communist Forces exchanged the remains of war dead in what came to be called “Operation Glory.” All remains recovered in Operation Glory were turned over to the Army Central Identification Unit for analysis. Those which were unable to be identified, given the technology of that time, were interred as unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii -- the “Punchbowl.”
This year, Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command analysts were able to positively identify Gzik's remains through circumstantial evidence, dental records, and radiographs.
Gzik's remains were returned to his family in Toledo, Ohio, and he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors on September 28.
