On Aug. 31, 1950, somewhere along the Naktong River near Yongsan-Myeon in South Korea, PFC Anthony John Lopa was killed in action while fighting the North Koreans.
Lopa, a native of North Arlington, was a member of Delta Battery, 82nd Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. He was 17.
Because the area around the Naktong River continued to be a hotbed of hostilities for many months, remains of soldiers were not recovered until much later. All recovered bodies were eventually declared unidentifiable. Â
When the Korean War ended, 648 unidentified American soldiers were returned to Hawaii and buried.
As part of the Department of Defense’s POW/MIA Accounting Agency’s work, these unidentified bodies from the Korean War were exhumed and identified one by one using dental records, comparative chest X-rays and mitochondrial DNA analysis. Lopa’s body was identified on July 21, 2023.
Lopa came home on June 28. His remains were buried with full military honors at the Brig. Gen. William C. Doyle Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Wrightstown.
Lopa’s remaining blood relatives, including his niece, Kelly Domitrowsky, who received the folded flag, attended the services.
