Sgt. 1st Class W.T. Akins left Decatur and the United States decades ago for the Army and a fight in the Korean War. Finally, he is home.

Akins' remains, recently identified from among six boxes repatriated to the United States last year by North Korea, will be buried June 26 in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. with full military honors.

The announcement came in a news release from the Department of Defense's POW/Missing Personnel office. Officials said Akins was a member of the Medical Company, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. In November 1950, the unit occupied a defensive position near Unsan, North Korea — north of a bend in the Kuryong River known as the Camel's Head.

On Nov. 1, elements of two Chinese Communist Divisions struck the 1st Cavalry Division's lines, collapsing the perimeter and forcing a withdrawal. Akins was reported missing on Nov. 2 and was one of more than 350 servicemen unaccounted-for from the battle.

North Korea told defense department officials that the remains were excavated in November 2006 near Unsan in North Pyongan Province.

U.S. scientists used mitochondrial DNA and dental comparisons among other forensic identification tools to identify Akins' remains.