Published Aug 21, 2026, 5:00 AM EDT
More than 75 years after going missing during the Korean War, Willis McNiel is getting a proper send-off later this month.
U.S. Army Sgt. Willis McNiel disappeared in 1950 during the Korean War, and is now receiving a proper military sendoff roughly 75 years later. McNiel, who was 20 years old when he went missing several decades ago, will be interred Aug. 31 in East Greenwood Cemetery in Weatherford, Texas. Services and interment are being coordinated by Galbreaith Pickard Funeral Chapel. That is according to U.S. Army Human Resources Command, whose Past Conflict Repatriations Branch plays a major role in identifying, locating and contacting subsequent generation family members of soldiers missing or killed in action during WWII and the Korean War. That includes positively identifying previously undiscovered or unknown remains.
McNiel grew up loving horses but unfortunately lost both his parents by age 11. (US Army Human Resources Command)
The service said that in late 1950, McNiel was a member of Company D, 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action on Dec. 2 during a major battle near the Jangjin (Chosin) Reservoir in North Korea. Lacking evidence of his continued survival, the Army issued a presumptive finding of death for McNiel on Dec. 31, 1953. More than 50 years later, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency accounted for McNiel on Dec. 3, 2025. His name He is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. McNiel's name is inscribed on the Korean War Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, which was updated in 2022. The Korean War Veterans Association says that there were 36,574 in-theater deaths during the Korean War, and 54,246 when incorporating non-theater deaths.
