After being missing in action since 1950, U.S. Army Sgt. John Rhyter from Bedford has finally been identified and accounted for. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced this news, stating that Rhyter, who was presumed dead in 1953 during the Korean War, was officially accounted for on April 8.
Rhyter, a member of the 82nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion, went missing during intense combat against the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army near Kunu-ri in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Despite efforts to locate him, he was never found, and there was no evidence of him being a prisoner of war, leading to a presumptive finding of death in 1953.
In 1954, after the war ended, remains were recovered from a Prisoner of War Cemetery in North Korea, but definitive proof linking them to Rhyter could not be found at the time. However, in September 2019, DPAA personnel sent the remains back for analysis, and Rhyter was finally identified through dental, anthropological analysis, chest radiograph, and Mitochondrial DNA analysis.
Rhyter’s name is now on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, and a rosette will be placed next to his name to signify that he has been accounted for after all these years. This closure brings peace and recognition to the soldier’s family and honors his sacrifice for his country.
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