Dog tag returned from N. Korea brings family relief

WASHINGTON — The lone military identification tag that North Korea provided with 55 boxes of human remains last month belonged to Master Sgt. Charles H. Mcdaniel, an Army medic from Indiana who was killed in the opening months of the Korean War.

The Army on Wednesday handed Mcdaniel’s slightly corroded dog tag to his sons, Charles Jr. and Larry, who were so young when their father perished that they have little memory of him. Charles Jr., 71, of Indianapolis, told reporters he was moved to tears when he got the phone call at home in Indianapolis last week informing him that his father’s dog tag had been returned.

“It’s a very mixed, jumbled moment for us,” he said, referring to the emotions he and his brother feel so many years after having grown up without their biological father, never knowing for sure what happened to him in a war many Americans have forgotten.

“At least we have this,” he said, pointing to the dog tag, imprinted with the name Charles Hobert McDaniel and a service number.

The dog tag is no assurance that Mcdaniel’s remains are among those contained in the 55 boxes that the North Korean army turned over to U.S. officials at Wonsan, North Korea, on July 27. John Byrd, director of the Defense Department laboratory in Hawaii that is beginning the process of attempting to identify the remains, said the condition of the bones is judged to be “moderate to poor preservation,” meaning few are whole bones and all are quite old.

No personal effects were handed over by the North Koreans aside from the Mcdaniel dog tag. The boxes contained a number of U.s.-issued military items such as helmets, gloves and canteens, but none are associated with any specific individual.