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The remains of a US soldier who went missing in action during the Korean war were identified by DNA analysis, and he was recently laid to rest in his hometown of Gallup, New Mexico, authorities said.

US army Sgt Celestino Chavez Jr’s burial ended a decades-long saga that began with him being wounded while defending his post near the Changjin (Chosin) Reservoir in North Korea and then being taken to an aid station on 30 November 1950. Chavez, 19, was then reported missing in action three days later, when enemy fighters attacked his convoy.

As the army neither received information indicating that he was held as a prisoner of war nor evidence of his survival, officials issued a “presumptive finding of death” on 31 December of that same year. Chavez later posthumously received the US military’s Silver Star for continuing to defend his position despite his injuries, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA).

But it wasn’t until 2018 that a process began that culminated in Chavez’s return home. That year, Donald Trump – then in his first US presidency – met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. And one month after that summit, North Korea sent the US more than 55 boxes “purported to contain the remains of American service members killed during the Korean war”, the DPAA said.

After the remains’ arrival at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, the DPAA started working to identify them. DPAA scientists used “anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial and material evidence” in efforts to identify the remains, and investigators from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System employed various DNA analyses.

The DPAA deemed Chavez as accounted for on 15 April 2025.

More recently, officials provided Chavez’s family a compete briefing on his identification. He was then buried on 15 April – one year from his being accounted for – in his home town of Gallup while “surrounded by family, senior military leaders and state officials honoring his service and sacrifice”, New Mexico’s national guard said.

Officials gave Chavez’s family US and New Mexico flags “on behalf of a grateful nation and state, honoring his military service and the legacy of honor he leaves behind”.

In addition to the Silver Star, Chavez earned a Purple Heart and Korean Service Medal, with two Bronze Service Stars, the New Mexico national guard said.

“The full burial honors rendered served as a final tribute to Chavez’s courage, sacrifice and enduring bond with the state he called home,” the New Mexico national guard said.