OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Nebraska – Generations of American families have grown up without knowing exactly what happened to their loved ones who died while serving their country in World War II and other conflicts.
But a federal laboratory located above the bowling alley at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha and a sister laboratory in Hawaii are constantly answering these lingering questions, aiming to offer 200 families a year the opportunity to honor the their family members with a proper burial.
“They may not have even been alive when that service member was alive, but that story is passed down through the generations,” said Carrie Brown, lab manager at the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency in Offutt. a photo of that person when they were little and didn’t understand or know who they were.”
Memorial Day and the upcoming 80th anniversary of D-Day on June 6 are reminders of the urgency of Brown’s work. Forensic anthropologists, medical examiners and historians working together to identify lost soldiers are in a race against time as remains buried on battlefields around the world deteriorate.
But advances in DNA technology, combined with innovative techniques including comparing bones with chest X-rays taken by the military, mean that laboratories can identify more missing soldiers every year. Around 72,000 soldiers from World War II remain missing, along with around 10,000 more from every conflict since. Experts believe that about half of them are recoverable.
The agency identified 59 service members in 2013, when the Offutt laboratory opened. This number has been steadily increasing – 159 military personnel last year, compared to 134 in 2022 – and laboratories have a goal of 200 identifications annually.
The labs’ work allowed Donna Kennedy to bury her cousin, the corporal. Charles Ray Patten with full military honors this month in the same Lawson, Missouri, cemetery where his father and grandfather are buried. Patten died 74 years ago during the Korean War, but spent decades buried as an unknown at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii.
“I just suffered. I mean, it hurt. You know, I felt so bad. Even though I didn’t know him, I loved him,” Kennedy said.
Patten’s funeral was simple, with just a few family members. But often, when veterans who fought decades earlier are identified, people wave flags and hold signs on the streets of their hometowns to announce the return of their remains.
“This work is important first and foremost because it is about individuals who gave their lives to protect our freedom and paid the ultimate sacrifice. So we are here making good on the promise that we will return them home to their families,” Brown said.
“It’s important for their families to show them that we will never stop, no matter what,” she said.
There are often compelling details, Brown said.
One of his first cases involved the intact remains of a World War I marine, found in a forest in France with his wallet still in his pocket. The wallet, initialed GH, contained a New York Times article describing plans for the offensive in which he ended up dying. He also had an infantryman’s badge with his name and the year he received it on his back.
Before leaving France with the remains, the team visited a local cemetery where other soldiers were buried and discovered that there were only two missing soldiers with the initials GH.
Brown had a good idea who that soldier was even before his remains arrived at the lab. This veteran was buried in Arlington National Cemetery and Brown often visits her grave when she is in Washington, D.C.
Most cases are not that easy.
Experts working at the lab must piece together identities by examining historical records about where the remains were found and which soldiers were in the area. They then consult the list of possible names and use the bones, objects found with them, military medical records and DNA to confirm their identities. They focus on battles and plane crashes where they have the greatest chance of success due to the information available.
But your job can be complicated if soldiers are buried in a temporary cemetery and transferred when a unit is forced to retreat. And unidentified soldiers were often buried together.
When remains are brought to the laboratory, they sometimes include an extra bone. Experts spend months or even years matching the bones and awaiting results from DNA and other tests to confirm their identities.
A test can even identify whether the soldier grew up eating primarily rice or a corn-based diet.
The lab also compares specific features of the collarbones to the chest X-rays the military routinely took of soldiers before they deployed. It helps that the military keeps extensive records of all soldiers.
These clues help experts piece together the puzzle of someone’s identity.
“It’s not always easy. It’s certainly not instantaneous,” Brown said. “In some cases, we really have to fight to get to that point, because some of them have been gone for 80 years.”
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