Remains of teenage Alabama soldier killed in Korean War identified

“Here I am in my foxhole, trying to write these few lines. My friends on both sides of me have already been killed and I expect to be killed at any time. Someone will have to pray. That’s all I have to write about. Goodbye forever.”

These are the last words 18-year-old Corporal Waymon Slaten wrote to his family in Arab, Alabama, nearly 75 years ago.

But on January 13, Slaten’s remains will finally be interred in his hometown, having recently been identified by the US Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA).

“On October 22, 1950, the American Graves Registration Service issued Unknown Remains.

“However, these remains could not be identified as Slaten at the time and were subsequently buried as unknown at the United Nations Military Cemetery in Tanggok, South Korea. Later, in 1954, X-256 was reexamined and found to still be unidentifiable. The remains were repatriated to the United States and interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as Punchbowl, in Honolulu.”

“In May 2021, during Phase 3 of the DPAA Korean War Destruction Project, Unknown X-256 was unearthed and sent to the DPAA laboratory for analysis.”

Slaten was brought to justice on August 14 of this year and his family was informed of the details.