ARLIGNTON, Va. — A missing soldier from the Korean War, whose remains were identified in December, was buried Monday at Virginia's Arlington National Cemetery — 64 years after his death.
Army Sgt. Joseph Snock, of Apollo, Pennsylvania, was 21 when he went missing in North Korea, east of the Chosin Reservoir, according to a Defense Department news release. Snock disappeared after heavy fighting Nov. 29, 1950.
Snock's niece Kathleen Baker said in an interview that the deceased soldier's twin brother and fellow soldier, John Snock, ran for help after seeing that his brother was injured. When John Snock returned to assist his brother, he was gone.
"It was hard, I don't think he ever recovered from that," Baker said of her uncle John Snock, who came home from Korea and died in 2007. "He died not knowing."
Joseph Snock died from malnutrition and lack of medical care while he was held prisoner in December 1950, according to the Defense Department.
The remains of Joseph Snock and an estimated 400 other unidentified U.S. servicemen were handed over by North Korea between 1990 and 1994, the Pentagon said. While 7,846 American servicemen are still missing from the fighting in that conflict, new technology has allowed the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory to identify lost members of the military.
DNA from Joseph Snock's twin brother and another sister led to the identification of his remains, Baker said. In December, Baker said she received a phone call confirming that the military had bones belonging to her uncle.
