The remains of a US soldier who told his mother he was “unarmed” have been identified 75 years after he disappeared in Korea.

A 19-year-old New Mexico man killed during the Korean War has been accounted for, military officials said Tuesday.

US Army Sgt. Celestino Chavez enlisted in the military in 1949, at the age of 17, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said in a statement. Chavez was assigned to D Battery, 15th Anti-Aircraft Artillery of the Automatic Weapons Battalion in the 7th Infantry Division.

Chavez’s mother, Lupita Chavez, said the last time she heard from him was on November 27, 1950, when she received a letter that said “If something happens to me, please mother, don’t shed tears,” according to a news release published by the DPAA.

Three days later, on November 30, 1950, Chavez was wounded while defending his position near the city. Chosin Reservoir in Korea. The region, located in modern-day North Korea, was “the site of some of the most brutal fighting between the UN and Chinese Communist Forces” during the war, according to the DPAA. About 30,000 United Nations soldiers and Marines fought 120,000 enemy soldiers for several weeks between late November and mid-December 1950, the agency said. More than 1,000 US service members were killed, and thousands were injured, according to the DPAA.

Chavez was “severely beaten and injured” during the attack, according to a statement accompanying his posthumous Silver Star medal. However, he “refused to be released … because there was no one else who could take his place.”

“He remained in his position willingly, despite his wound, and continued to fire the weapon,” the statement read, according to a news release shared by the DPAA. “When the enemy’s attack was interrupted by direct and heavy fire, Corporal Chavez, exhausted from blood loss, fainted and fell from the M-19 gun carriage.”

Chavez was eventually released to an aid station, DPAA said. He was reported missing on December 2, when his convoy was “overrun by soldiers,” according to the organization. There are no records showing that he was a prisoner of war. He was pronounced dead on December 31, 1953.

Chavez is the only person from his hometown of Gallup, New Mexico who has not been identified in the controversy, according to local news reports. His name is memorialized in the Courts of the Missing at the National Cemetery of the Pacific.

The DPAA said that due to the cold weather and the withdrawal of UN forces from the Chosin Reservoir, hundreds of service members could not be found immediately. In the past decades, efforts have been made to find and identify the bodies of those who died in the area. About 7,500 US soldiers are believed to be missing from the Korean War, according to the DPAA.

In 2018, North Korea turned around 55 boxes believed to contain remains of American service members who died in the Korean War. The DPAA has been to study those remains to try and do other identifiers.

Through anthropological analysis, circumstantial and physical evidence, as well as multiple DNA and genome tests, the DPAA was to be able to see clearly a collection of remains like Chavez’s. The identification was made just one year ago on April 15, 2025. Chavez’s remains were taken to New Mexico. Members of the New Mexico National Guard Funeral Honors Team found his casket in Albuquerque.

“We are here to make sure you are welcomed with dignity,” said a member of the National Guard, according to the social media team. “It’s an honorable job.”

Chavez received a military funeral with full honors in his hometown, according to the DPAA. In addition to the Silver Star, he was awarded the Purple Heart and the Korean Service Medal with two Bronze Service stars, according to the National Guard. His name has been removed from the Missing Persons Court.

The DPAA said Chavez’s family had received full information about his identity, but did not specify when. Besides his mother, Chavez is survived by several siblings, according to the news release. The center did not share which family members are still alive today.