NPR and Propublica recently published a
report in which they investigated the process by which unknown U.S.
soldiers from WWII, Korea and the Vietnam wars are identified with
the goal of returning the remains to family members. My ears pricked
up because, as I wrote about in
Lost Boys of WWII, I have a WWII soldier who died when the aircraft in which he was
flying crashed into a mountain in Burma (now Myanmar). His mother
went to her grave never knowing how her son died or if he suffered in
the process. The records were only declassified after her death.
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
It turns out that the methods used by
the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) to identify remains are
outdated. In this age when DNA testing is routinely used to
positively identify remains, including victims of the 9/11 attacks
and even massacre victims buried in mass graves in Bosnia, the U.S.
Government only uses DNA to confirm matches already made by other
means. Methods such as examining teeth and measuring bones to
determine height can only lead so far in the identification process,
assuming the remains have been disinterred at all. The current
process proceeds in the following manner:
Historical records are analyzed to
determine if identifying remains in a particular area (battlefield,
crash site, etc.) is feasible.
Archaeologists disinter remains.
Physical remains are examined in
the JPAC laboratory.
DNA is used only to confirm an
identification made based on the previous work.
In contrast, a DNA-led strategy would
involve disinterring available remains, conducting DNA tests on them
as well as on living family members of the deceased and then comparing
the two data sets to identify matches.
Of the approximately 83,000 people
listed as prisoners of war or missing in action, the Pentagon
estimates that about half could be identified and returned to family
members. At the current rate of about seventy identifications per
year, the chances of returning very many within the lifetime of
anyone who actually knew them is. . . well. . . not very good. In
addition, during the several hundred years it would take to identify
all of these lost soldiers at the current rate, living family members
appropriate for DNA testing could die out making positive
identification next to impossible. While I am sure that those
charged with the difficult work of examining the bones of the fallen
try their hardest to reunite them with their families, it seems crazy
to me that we spend over $100 million dollars each year using
outdated methods with so little to show for it, especially when
DNA-led techniques used in other recovery missions can quickly
produce many more results. As an example, the effort in Bosnia to
identify victims in mass graves yielded about 400 identifications per
month at the height of the project. 400 identifications per month or
4800 IDs/year versus an average of 70 per year. Hmmm. If the goal
is to bring soldiers home I know which method I would choose.
Other problems with the process of
identifying POW/MIAs include several layers of bureaucracy and a
reluctance to disinter multiple remains in the hope of identifying a
single soldier. Some families have done their own investigations
into the available records to try to narrow the field. Even in cases
when the families believe their loved one is among a set of remains
the powers that be have refused to remove them for testing apparently
because they didn't want to disturb men who had already been
honorably buried. According the NPR/Propublica report only about 4%
of the cases for disinterment move forward. While I can only speak
for myself, if my soldier's remains were in a group grave I would be
happy to have the remains disinterred if it meant that DNA testing
could be done to possibly bring my man home.
My soldier and his comrades will likely
never be repatriated because of poor relations with Myanmar, the
uncertainty of the crash site and the fact that any remains are
surely long gone. But for families who have soldiers buried in group
unknown graves, I wish they stood a reasonable chance of bringing
their loved ones home. Unfortunately, unless the current state of
affairs changes, most will never be able to obtain closure by laying
to rest their men who gave their lives in defense of their country,
in marked graves.
You can read more about this story
here.
