The remains of a Milbridge man killed while fighting in the Korean War have been identified and will be buried in Down East Maine this fall.
Cpl. Oscar L. Sprague was 22 at the time of his death, according to the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. He was a member of Company H, 2nd Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division.
Sprague was reported missing on Sept. 3, 1950, near Yongsan in South Korea, and his remains were unable to be recovered at the time.
The U.S. Army presumed Sprague to be dead by Dec. 31, 1953, and his body was declared unrecoverable on Jan. 16, 1956.
However, as part of a plan to disinter and attempt to identify 652 unknown bodies recovered after the Korean War, DNA and other physical analysis was able to identify Sprague as one of the sets of remains that had been interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Sprague’s remains had been found on Sept. 11, 1951, in a shallow grave near the Naktong Bulge region of the Pusan Perimeter, but were not able to be identified at the time.
Because Sprague had been recorded as missing, his name was recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. A rosette will be placed next to his name to note that he has been accounted for.
Sprague will be buried in Milbridge in September 2025.
