Irish man killed in North Korean War to be buried in Tipperary after 76 years

Sarah Slater

An Irish man who fought as an Army Sergeant and was killed trying to save his military comrades in the North Korean War is finally making his final journey home after 76 years.

The Purple Heart recipient, US Army Sergeant Thomas J 'Tom Jo' O’Brien (23), originally from Emly, Co Tipperary, died in the 1950 North Korean War after emigrating to New York three years earlier. He served in Headquarters Battery, 90th Field Artillery Battalion, 25th Infantry Division.

The young man, who came from a farming family, joined the military after the promise he would become a legal resident and receive a green card.

He was reported as missing in action (MIA) presumed dead by the US military to his mother, Sarah, and his six siblings. O’Brien was killed by tank fire on October 26th, 1950, after his unit was attacked by Korean People’s Army (KPA) forces while moving through the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) along the Taeryong River.

For his leadership and valour, O’Brien was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the Good Conduct medal, the Korean Service medal, the United Nations Service medal, the National Defense Service medal, and the Korean Presidential Unit Citation.

Following the end of hostilities, there was no information to suggest O’Brien was being held as a prisoner of war, and no body was recovered.

However, in the late summer of 1954, during Operation GLORY, North Korea returned remains reportedly recovered from various gravesites to the United Nations Command. One set of remains, designated as Unknown X-16829, was thought to be that of O’Brien, but a positive association could not be made at the time.

Body X-16829 and all other unidentified unknowns were buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, Hawaii. A tentative association was made between the remains and O'Brien, but it could not be confirmed with the medical techniques available at the time.

Thomas O'Brien's niece, Shivaun, said her family moved to Los Angeles in the US from Ireland when she was four years old.

“My sisters Patricia, Terre, my late brother Eoin and I made a promise to my late father Michael who died in 2014 that we would continue the search for his younger brother Thomas and if we found him we would bring him home to be buried with his mother Sarah and other family members. It was his dying wish as he was the last of his siblings which included Margret, Una, Mary, Nancy and Seán to pass away," she said.

“Now we have succeeded and it is bittersweet. We all wish our father was alive to witness this. Before he died he allowed some of this DNA to be taken and stored by a division of US Government involved in trying to identify war dead.

“His unit was pinned down and as a gunnery he drew enemy tank fire in his direction, which allowed 10 men from his unit to retreat safely. He was killed by enemy tank fire.”

Her grandmother, Sarah, before she died in 1957, had her son’s name engraved on the family headstone in St Ailbe’s graveyard in Emly hoping his body would eventually be brought home.

In March 2018, the US Government Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) disinterred this set of remains for further study. The laboratory analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available allowed scientists to identify O'Brien.

He is memorialised on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. A rosette was placed next to O'Brien's name to indicate he had been accounted for once he was identified on September 27th, 2024. His name is also inscribed on the Korean War Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC.

In 2003, O’Brien and 27 other Irish men who had died in World War II the Korean War, and The Vietnam War, were awarded their US citizenship posthumously. The ceremony on Capitol Hill was attended by his brother Michael, an engineer who fought in World War II in the British Army and his children.

“Our father was so proud that day and happy that then US President George W Bush, Senators Ted Kennedy and Chuck Schumer ensured this happened. We received Thomas’s military file that day which detailed what exactly happened to him. It made for graphic reading about what happened on that day back in 1950 and obviously it was upsetting,” Shivaun said.

The family luckily managed to meet two men at the ceremony in 2003 who knew O’Brien where one who trained with him described him as being “very shy” and a man who had “an infectious laugh especially when they eventually could entice him to have some alcohol.

“The other man was in his unit and fought with him. He detailed that the front line they were in was unorganised but the second line was organised however this man saw my uncle being shot and confirmed he died instantly.”

Shivaun said she felt that her “Dad would be elated and pleased that we are finally bringing his brother home. I feel sad that Thomas didn’t have a long life and for my Dad, my grandmother Sarah and his siblings who never got to see him being brought home. But it is so important that he will be with his family in Ireland soon.

“We were never sure if his body was still in North Korea or in the Punchbowl in Hawaii, for so many years but now we have our answer at long last. I have written to the US Embassy in Dublin in the hope that a guard of honour might be provided next Monday. The family would also love it if as many from Emly or Tipperary might attend the service of his home coming. It would mean so much to us all.”

O’Brien’s remains were eventually brought from Hawaii to Los Angeles (LAX) airport on June 8th this year where they were received by his American nieces, great-nephew and family friends where they were subsequently cremated.

On Friday, Shivaun’s sister Pat, her son-in-law, who is a detective in Colorado and an ex-Marine, and her son Seán will begin their journey back to Tipperary where their uncle and granduncle will finally be laid to rest with his family at 3pm in Ailbe’s graveyard in Emly next Monday.

Shivaun thanked the many people who assisted in bringing about a resolution, including the US Veterans Administration, the DPAA, and the United Service Organisations (USO), a family of volunteers at the Bob Hope terminal at LAX who “provide weary troops and military families with a space filled with kindness, warmth and hospitality,” she explained when first speaking to the Tipperary Nationalist about her uncle.

She also thanked the US Veterans Motorcycle Club for escorting the family from Los Angeles Airport, and “most importantly we would like to thank those who serve today, those that served, as well as their families”.

Her cousin Kate Phipps, who lives in Naas, County Kildare explained that her uncle was to be buried in California by the army but that the family wanted to ensure he would be buried back in Tipperary.

“My mother Una, John Jo’s sister died in 2011 so she knew the US military were actively searching for him back then as they gathered DNA from us. My mother often spoke about him, especially in her latter years. I’m so glad that his ashes are being back in my life time as I’m 69 now,” Phipps said.