KNOXVILLE, Tenn. ( WATE ) — A soldier’s remains have been returned to East Tennessee 74 years after he went MIA during the Korean War.
U.S. Army Master Sergeant David Paul Sluder was honorably discharged after serving in World War II. He later reenlisted at the start of the Korean War.
Sluder’s unit was stationed south of the Kum River Line. On July 14, 1950, his unit was attacked by enemy ground forces of the North Korean People’s Army (KPA). Sluder was sent to warn soldiers and civilians in a nearby village about an upcoming invasion after all communications with them had been lost. He was killed upon arrival to the village as KPA had already gotten to the village. He was reported MIA that day.
After the war, recovery teams retrieved the bodies of soldiers. Sluder’s body was taken to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii. It would be decades before his family learned what happened to him.
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Sluder’s niece, Gerri Hayden, who is now in her 80s, was at McGhee Tyson for the arrival of his remains Thursday.