A 19-year-old New Mexico man killed in action during the Korean War has been accounted for, military officials said Tuesday.
U.S. Army Sgt. Celestino Chavez enlisted in the military in 1949, when he was 17 years old, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said in a news release. Chavez was assigned to D Battery, in the 15th Anti-Aircraft Artillery of the Automatic Weapons Battalion in the 7th Infantry Division.
Chavez's mother, Lupita Chavez, said she last heard from him on Nov. 27, 1950, when she received a letter that said "If anything happens to me, please mother, no tears," according to a news clipping shared by the DPAA.
Three days later, on Nov. 30, 1950, Chavez was wounded while defending his position near the Chosin Reservoir in Korea. The region, in present-day North Korea, was "the site of one one of the most brutal battles between UN and Chinese Communist Forces" during the war, according to the DPAA. About 30,000 United Nations soldiers and Marines fought against 120,000 enemy troops for several weeks between late November and mid-December 1950, the agency said. Over 1,000 U.S. service members were killed, and thousands more were wounded, according to the DPAA.
U.S. Army Sgt. Celestino Chavez.
Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
Chavez was "struck and seriously wounded" during the attack, according to a statement that accompanied a Silver Star posthumous medal he was awarded. However, he "refused to be evacuated ... because there was no other man available to replace him."
"He stayed at his post voluntarily and, despite his wound, kept the weapon firing," the statement read, according to a news clipping shared by the DPAA. "When the enemy attack had been broken up by the accurate and intense fire, Corporal Chavez, weakened by loss of blood, collapsed unconscious and fell from the M-19 gun carriage to the ground."
Chavez was eventually evacuated to an aid station, the DPAA said. He was reported missing in action on December 2, when his convoy was "ambushed by opposing forces," according to the agency. No records show he was a prisoner of war. He was declared presumed dead on Dec. 31, 1953.
Chavez was the only person from his hometown of Gallup, New Mexico to be unaccounted for in the conflict, according to a local news clipping. His name was memorialized in the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery in the Pacific.
The DPAA said that because of cold weather and the retreat of U.N. forces from the Chosin Reservoir, hundreds of servicemembers were unable to be immediately recovered. Over the decades, efforts have been made to recover and identify bodies of those who died at the site. About 7,500 U.S. troops are believed to be unaccounted for from the Korean War, according to the DPAA.
U.S. Marines travel a mountain road on their advance to the Chosin Reservoir, a source of electric power for North Korea.
Bettmann
In 2018, North Korea turned over 55 boxes believed to contain the remains of American service members who died in the Korean War. The DPAA has been studying those remains to try and make further identifications.
Through anthropological analysis, circumstantial and material evidence, and multiple forms of DNA and genome testing, the DPAA was able to positively identify a set of remains as belonging to Chavez. The identification was made exactly one year ago on April 15, 2025. Chavez's remains were transported to New Mexico. Members of the New Mexico National Guard Funeral Honors Team received his casket in Albuquerque.
"We're here to make sure he is received with dignity," a National Guard member said, according to a social media post by the team. "It's an honorable duty."
Chavez received a military burial with full honors in his hometown, according to the DPAA. In addition to the Silver Star, he was honored with a Purple Heart and the Korean Service Medal with two Bronze Service Stars, according to the National Guard. His name has been removed from the Courts of the Missing.
The DPAA said that Chavez's family have received a full briefing on his identification, but did not specify when. In addition to his mother, Chavez was survived by multiple step-siblings, according to news clippings. The agency did not share which family members are still alive today.
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