Local hero's remains are ID'd
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/07/20/local_heros_remains_are_idd?mode=PF
Randolph man died in Korea
With his fellow soldiers in danger from a machine-gun nest on a hill in North Korea, Army Corporal Robert K. Imrie charged the position, firing his assault rifle until he stopped the enemy gunfire.
The 23-year-old from Randolph was shot and killed and was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his bravery and sacrifice on Nov. 27, 1950.
But he was listed as missing in action, and his family never received his body.
Yesterday, the US Department of Defense announced that Imrie and two other missing soldiers from the Korean War had been identified and will be buried with full military honors Monday at Arlington National Cemetery.
A few days before Memorial Day, one of Imrie's nieces received a call from the Army telling her that DNA tests had identified remains as those of her uncle.
"She was in shock," said Anne Imrie, the corporal's other niece. "She didn't know what to say or know what to ask. She just took the information."
Born seven years after Robert Imrie's death, Anne Imrie said she knew little about her uncle. Her father and Imrie's only sibling, Aubrey, a 30-year veteran of the Air Force, died in 1986. "When we were growing up, we only knew of him as a war hero," Imrie said in a telephone interview yesterday from her home in Arlington, Va. "That's about it, other than that I was told I look like him."
Imrie grew up on South Street in Randolph, his niece said, and graduated from Stetson High School in Randolph in 1947 or 1948. He enlisted in 1948.
He was in the Second Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, Second Infantry Division, which was retreating near the Chongchon River as Chinese troops advanced.
His niece said his medal citation stated that Imrie "single-handedly charged the machine-gun position on the right flank, completely disregarding his personal safety, and continually fired his automatic weapon until he had neutralized the position.
"His gallant and intrepid actions had diverted enemy machine- gun fire from his platoon, thereby saving his comrades from annihilation and enabling them to eliminate the one remaining machine-gun position and secure the objective."
After his death, Randolph named a street for Imrie, and the "Good Shepherd" windows above the altar of Trinity Episcopal Church were donated in his memory, Anne Imrie said.
In 2000, a joint US-North Korean team excavated a mass burial believed to contain the remains of US soldiers. The team found human remains, an identification tag, and other evidence associated with Army infantry equipment.
Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists used mitochondrial DNA and dental comparisons to identify the remains. Imrie said the DNA sample that identified Robert Imrie's remains were derived from his mother's brother, Leroy Tulk. He died four years ago at age 92.
The Pentagon yesterday also announced the recovery of Sergeant Donald C. Trent of Crab Orchard, W. Va., and Corporal Samuel Wirrick of Lancaster, Pa.
There are still about 8,100 servicemen unaccounted for from the Korean War, according to the Department of Defense.
David Abel can be reached at dabel@globe.com. 
