Found and Not Forgotten
Monday August 29, 2005
It is estimated that more than 90,000 U.S. service members from America's previous military conflicts are still missing in action or unaccounted for. Some may have disappeared on the battlefield while others vanished under more mysterious circumstances. Almost 40,000 of them from World War II are believed to be lost at sea or entombed in sunken vessels. Many of them are slowly being found, however, thanks to the work of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) based in Hawaii.
Made up of handpicked Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines, along with civilians from the Department of the Navy, the 425-member JPAC group is committed and dedicated to bringing these men and women home. They research each unaccounted-for individual, gathering information from the families, interviewing veterans who served with them, and gather information from personnel records, archives, and other outside sources. Once they've determined where the individual's last probable location is, field investigative teams are deployed. When a body is recovered, another team - the Central Identification Lab (CIL) - examines bones, teeth, and any other material evidence in an attempt to identify the body. Two Americans are so identified per week, on average.
One such story is that of Robert Arthur Smith, who disappeared along with six others when their Navy PBY Catalina fell under Japanese gunfire and crashed upon a dormant volcano on Kiska Island. on June 14, 1942. When the crash was located in 1943, heavy snows prevented recovery of the bodies, and the remains were interred at the crash site. All the family ever received was a letter from the Secretary of the Navy - "After a full review of all available information, I am reluctantly forced to the conclusion that your son … is deceased."
Three years ago, biologist Ian Jones from Newfoundland stumbled across the wreckage while doing research. He contacted JPAC and described what he found. Once their team recovered the bodies and identified the remains, they went in search of family. The common last name made Smith's family the last one to be found - it took JPAC eight months and a genealogist who pulled out a miracle to bring him home.
Made up of handpicked Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines, along with civilians from the Department of the Navy, the 425-member JPAC group is committed and dedicated to bringing these men and women home. They research each unaccounted-for individual, gathering information from the families, interviewing veterans who served with them, and gather information from personnel records, archives, and other outside sources. Once they've determined where the individual's last probable location is, field investigative teams are deployed. When a body is recovered, another team - the Central Identification Lab (CIL) - examines bones, teeth, and any other material evidence in an attempt to identify the body. Two Americans are so identified per week, on average.
One such story is that of Robert Arthur Smith, who disappeared along with six others when their Navy PBY Catalina fell under Japanese gunfire and crashed upon a dormant volcano on Kiska Island. on June 14, 1942. When the crash was located in 1943, heavy snows prevented recovery of the bodies, and the remains were interred at the crash site. All the family ever received was a letter from the Secretary of the Navy - "After a full review of all available information, I am reluctantly forced to the conclusion that your son … is deceased."
Three years ago, biologist Ian Jones from Newfoundland stumbled across the wreckage while doing research. He contacted JPAC and described what he found. Once their team recovered the bodies and identified the remains, they went in search of family. The common last name made Smith's family the last one to be found - it took JPAC eight months and a genealogist who pulled out a miracle to bring him home.
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