Last week, the remains of 55 American servicemen killed in the Korean War were returned to American soil for proper burial, and the identity of another victim from the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America was revealed.

Scott Michael Johnson was a 26-year-old securities analyst working in the World Trade Center nearly 17 years ago when the terrorist hijackers flew planes into the twin towers. He became the 1,642nd victim to be positively identified in the attacks which claimed 2,753 people in lower Manhattan, the Pentagon and in a field outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The medical examiner says Johnson was identified through improved DNA retesting of remains originally recovered in 2001. It was the first new identification made since last August.

Dr. Barbara Sampson, chief medical examiner, said this was part of the original commitment made to the families of victims that they would do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to identify their loved ones.

On Friday, cases containing the remains of U.S. servicemen killed in Korea were returned to America.

On that same day in 1953, leaders of North Korean, Chinese, and U.S.-led United Nations forces signed an armistice to halt the war.

Transfer of the remains were negotiated last month during a summit meeting in Singapore between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The return of the remains provided some closure for the families of the soldiers.

Chip Colwell, senior curator of anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science who has also advised families of 9/11 victims, said the void created by a tragic loss is like a ghost — intangible and lingering — that leads to ongoing pain and suffering for the victims’ families.

Receiving the remains are a key part of the grieving process, giving mourners something specific to remember of the person they’ve lost.

Some family members of 9/11 victims families believe that their loved ones could be among the unidentified remains stored at a repository underneath the World Trade Center site, adjacent to the 9/11 Memorial Museum. Instead of a grave or crypt or urn, these families visit the site’s “reflection room,” where they find some level of comfort.

A number of soldiers whose remains are unclaimed are also being remembered, thanks to organizations such as the Missing in America Project, a group that has given final honors to thousands of veterans across the country.

The MIA Project has worked with veterans groups, funeral homes, the Department of Veterans Affairs and others to find 16,431 cremated remains. Since 2007, they’ve identified 3,793 of them as veterans.

Last month, the remains of eight veterans were welcomed to their final resting place at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in Texas.

One of them was Tech Sgt. Dana Dean Milton Jr., a veteran of World War II, Korea and Vietnam, who had a 30-year service and was a Purple Heart recipient. His unclaimed remains had been held in storage for seven years in the basement of the county courthouse in Amarillo.

Joyce Earnest, Texas coordinator for the MIA project, said these veterans who are being located served our country honorably, and they deserve to be treated honorably in their deaths.

The ongoing missions of the medical examiners identifying the 9/11 remains and of the MIA project are to be commended.

By Jim Zbick | tneditor@tnonline.com