Remains of recently IDed Korean War veteran returned for burial

LACONIA — Hundreds lined Union Avenue on Saturday morning, hats in hand and waving American flags, to honor the repatriation and burial of Pfc. George A. Curley Jr., a native Laconian who died in captivity during the Korean War and was identified earlier this year.

Curley, 18 at the time of his death, was laid to rest beside his grandparents at Union Cemetery on Academy Street following a decorated procession along the busy thoroughfare. His burial, with full military honors, brought closure to a 70-plus-years-long effort to return his remains to his hometown.

People lined the streets outside the St. Andre Bessette Parish Sacred Heart Church, where a Mass of Christian burial was celebrated at 10 a.m., waiting for Curley’s funeral procession to exit the parish grounds and embark south toward his final resting place.

Just after 11 a.m., police stopped traffic along the route, and the city fire department hoisted a massive American flag, inscribed with the phrase “In memory of Trish Valovanie” — the department’s longtime administrative secretary who died in June 2024 — from the bucket of a ladder truck as a cavalcade of processional vehicles inched toward Union Cemetery, and a dozen firefighters lined the sidewalk to pay their respects.

Church bells tolled "The Star-Spangled Banner" from up high.

“Laconia didn’t forget their native son on Saturday,” District 1 Executive Councilor Joseph Kenney said Monday, noting the Korean War is often referred to as the “Forgotten War.”

“It was quite extraordinary, and I’m very proud to be an American.”

Curley was born in May 1932, to George Arthur Curley Sr. and Almeda May “Ida” Couture, according to his obituary. He was their only child and grew up in Laconia and was a Boy Scout, and attended Sacred Heart Catholic School.

In June 1948, with his father’s permission, Curley enlisted in the New Hampshire National Guard, and was later assigned to the U.S. Army Headquarters and Service Company, 2nd Engineer Combat Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. At age 18, Curley was captured and interned as a prisoner of war at Camp 5 near Pyoktong, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, on Nov. 30, 1950, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

According to DPAA records, Curley’s unit attempted to fight through a heavily-defended enemy roadblock near Kunu-Ri, North Korea. Other repatriated prisoners of war reported Curley died in February or March of 1951, while in captivity at Camp 5. He was likely buried nearby, but his were not among those remains returned from the area when the ceasefire came into effect.

During Operation GLORY, in September and October 1954, the United Nations Command and the Chinese Communist Forces exchanged remains of fallen service personnel. Those remains were processed at the Central Identification Unit laboratory in Kokura, Japan, but lab staff were unable to positively associate any remains with Curley. In 1956, all unidentified remains were transferred to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu — also known as the "Punchbowl” — and interred there as unknowns.

In July 2018, DPPA disinterred 652 unknowns from the Korean War and, on Nov. 18, 2019, as part of Phase II of the Korean War Disinterment Plan, one set of unknown remains was disinterred, analyzed and ultimately identified as Curley.

DPAA scientists used dental and anthropological analysis and a chest radiograph, and scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA and mitochondrial genome sequence analysis, in identifying Curley.

After more than 70 years listed as “missing in action,” Curley’s remains were positively identified by staff at the DPAA on March 3.

“It means a lot to the families and to everybody involved,” Kenney said. 

Curley is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, and his name is inscribed on the Korean War Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C., which was updated in 2022 to include the names of the fallen.

His remains were repatriated to Boston Logan airport on Wednesday.

Of the 44 service members hailing from New Hampshire and listed as missing on a database maintained by DPAA, 39 remain unaccounted for. Service members are only listed as “accounted for” when their remains have been positively identified and their next-of-kin duly notified.

“This being so close to home, this is an American issue, first of all — I’ve been saying this for 37-years,” Bob “Doc” Jones, president of the Northeast POW/MIA Network, said Monday. “We were charged — it was like an electrical shock in all of us. This is so important.”

Before Curley, the most recently identified service member from New Hampshire was Sgt. Alfred Harry Sidney, who DPAA staff identified in 2022. Since 1982, the remains of over 450 Americans killed in the Korean War have been identified and returned to their families for burial with full military honors. Less than 7,500 Americans remain unaccounted for, though hundreds are believed to be unrecoverable.

“His parents passed away never knowing the fate of their son's remains,” Curley’s obituary reads, in part. “His return brings long-awaited closure to his family, the community of Laconia and a grateful nation.”

“This was extremely important for his family, I’m sure, for society,” Jones said.

“An MIA from Korea has returned.”