More than 75 years after Army Pfc. Joseph “Dile” Chancery was reported missing in action during the Korean War, the Escambia County soldier is finally coming home.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified Chancery’s remains on March 24, 2026, ending a decades-long search and allowing his family to finally bring him home. He will be laid to rest with full military honors this weekend.
Chancery entered the Army from Alabama and served with Battery A, 57th Field Artillery Battalion, 7th Infantry Division. During the Battle of Chosin Reservoir on Nov. 28, 1950, his unit fought Chinese Communist Forces near the P’ungnyuri Inlet on the reservoir’s east side. Soldiers fought to prevent the enemy from capturing their artillery before battlefield conditions prevented many of the fallen from being recovered, and Chancery was listed as missing in action.
Following the war, unidentified remains recovered during Operation GLORY were buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. In 2021, DPAA exhumed the remains as part of its continuing effort to identify Americans still missing from past conflicts. Scientists conducted forensic testing and compared the results with historical records before confirming the remains belonged to Chancery.
In an interview with FOX News 10, Leaster Chancery Kelly, Chancery’s great niece, said she first learned the news through a letter informing the family that Chancery had finally been identified. “I got a letter and when I opened it, it said that they had found Uncle Dile’s remains.”
Kelly said finally bringing her great-uncle home has given the family a sense of closure. She remembered Chancery as “a very jolly person” who loved his country and had always dreamed of serving in the Army.
“He just loved his country, and his dream was to be in the Army, and he made it there.”
The identification also gave new meaning to a piece of family history that had been preserved for nearly 70 years.
In December 1952, fellow soldier Pfc. Isreal Samuels wrote to Chancery’s family from Fort Benning after serving alongside him during the war. “We were in the same battery… he was killed at the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. I was with him at the time of his death,” Samuels wrote.
For decades, the family held onto that letter while hoping Chancery might one day be brought home. His identification finally confirmed what Samuels had written more than 70 years earlier.
Chancery had previously been memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Following his identification, DPAA has accounted for his loss, and his name is also inscribed on the Korean War Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.
His return also highlights the work that continues to account for Americans still missing from the Korean War. According to DPAA, more than 7,300 Americans remain unaccounted for from the conflict, including about 144 from Alabama. Since 1982, the agency has identified and returned the remains of more than 450 Americans killed during the war.
Chancery’s family will receive his Purple Heart during a ceremony Friday at the Daphne Civic Center. He will be laid to rest with full military honors Saturday morning at Lottie United Methodist Church Cemetery near Atmore. The public is invited to attend.
Sherri Blevins is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You may contact her at [email protected].
