Julie Dorrington’s uncle Don Ellis was based in Japan with the Royal Australian Air Force when the Korean War broke out in 1950.
Just days before Christmas that year his plane went down during a bombing raid near the North Korean capital Pyongyang. He was 23 years old.
“My grandmother received the news by telegram, slipped under the door on Christmas Day. She returned from having Christmas lunch with relatives to find [it],” she told SBS News.
Don Ellis (left) is listed as Missing In Action from the Korean War. Source: Supplied by Danyal Syed
“She and my mother were obviously devastated.”
“Because Don was listed officially as ‘Missing in Action’, my grandmother always held out the hope that he may have survived, he may have been taken prisoner,” she said.
Her family is one of 43 Australian families of soldiers still missing from the Korean War (1950-1953) whose bodies are believed to lie north of the North-South Korean demarcation line.
More than 17,000 Australian servicemen fought in the Korean War, with 340 dying in the conflict.
Julie Dorrington’s uncle served in the Korean War. Source: SBS News
For the families of the 43 listed as Missing In Action they have never been able to lay their loved ones to rest but say recent developments with North Korea and the US have given them fresh hope.
At the historic Singapore summit in June between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, the two leaders pledged to work together on the repatriation of the remains of allied soldiers.
Since the meeting, at least 55 bodies have been returned to the United States and are now being DNA tested and identified.
Ian Saunders, whose father John Phillip Saunders went missing in action, has been on a tireless crusade to find his father's remains.
He has worked with historians to gather last known locations of the missing and collected DNA samples from Australian relatives.
Ian Saunders has been on a tireless campaign to have his father's remains found. Source: SBS
Mr Saunders says there are almost two thousand bodies at American grave sites in Hawaii and other locations which still haven't been DNA tested, and he is calling on the Australian government to exert more pressure on the issue.
“They don’t have to go and search a square mile of paddock like they did in Vietnam. These remains exist on Allied soil,” he said.
Australian War Memorial historian Michael Kelly praised the efforts of the families involved.
“It’s the families that have really kept the memory of these men alive. And the search has never died,” he said.
