News-Info-Alerts

Re: Searching For Solace

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: April 06, 2002

"Searching for Solace

The hunt continues for American forces killed or missing in action

by Master Sgt. Jim Greeley

Be it an Army private killed in World War II, a Marine lost during the Korean War or an Air Force pilot shot down and missing in Vietnam, the road home for any U.S. military member killed or missing in action travels through Hawaii. More precisely, that road runs directly through the Army’s Central Identification Laboratory Hawaii.

This organization of about 250 military and civilian workers faces the daunting and solemn task of finding, identifying and returning home America’s lost military sons and daughters.

It’s a task this unit doesn’t take lightly, according to Johnie Webb Jr., the lab’s deputy commander.

Webb, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and a Vietnam veteran, personifies the atmosphere at the lab. He’s soft-spoken, polite and respectful, but behind his blue eyes lays a glint of resolve and dogged determination. His gestures are unassuming, but at the same time soothing.

“These people are here for one reason,” Webb said emphatically. “To fulfill a promise America made to its warriors. A promise to bring them home.”

In fulfilling that promise, the lab serves several different masters.

“We are here for the families,” he said. “If I had not returned from Vietnam and my wife didn’t know what happened to me, I would want to know someone would try to give her some peace of mind.”

They also work for active duty military members. “What we do sends a strong message to our military. If you’re lost on the battlefield, we are going to do everything we can to bring you home.

“We also work for the veterans. The vet who lost a buddy in a fox hole next to him, or that wingman who lost his buddy years ago ... we work for them, because they agonize over those events,” Webb said.

The lab is a collection of buildings and trailers on the oceanside of Hickam Air Force Base. From its enclave, team members travel the globe searching for American MIAs.

On glaciers in China, jungles in Laos, farmers’ fields in France or the depths of the Pacific Ocean, teams are continuously searching far-flung, and sometimes long-forgotten, battlefields. The goal is always the same. Find and identify our lost warriors.

“We are a one of a kind operation,” Webb said about his unit. “No other country in the world does what we do.”

Helen Dockall, a forensic anthropologist, has worked at the lab for five years. She has led recovery missions in Vietnam, Laos and Germany. When she’s not out leading “digs,” she’s back at the lab working to identify remains.

“The sense of fulfillment I get from this job is amazing,” Dockall said. “I could be teaching at a university and lecturing to a bunch of students who really don’t care about what’s going on. Instead, in my work here, I can apply the skills I’ve learned and make a difference to families that’ve been waiting years for answers.”

The mission is also personal for Dockall. Her dad served two tours in Vietnam.

“I always knew how lucky I was that he survived,” she said. “When I heard about [the laboratory], I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”

Dockall is one of 30 doctors at the lab, and enjoys the fact she works in the largest anthropology lab in the world.

The doctor and her colleagues use every tool possible to identify the remains, including state-of-the-art computers, microscopes, radiographic equipment, dental X-rays and mitochondrial DNA testing.

“We try as hard as we can to identify all remains brought to the lab,” said Ann Bunch, another of the lab’s forensic anthropologists. “We will turn over every rock and search every crevice to find answers.”

Bunch admits that the scientific reality is that some cases will just be unrecoverable. But, she says they try.

“We do that in the lab and the field,” Bunch said. “We don’t stop excavating until we’ve reached the reasonable limits of a site.”

The point is illustrated by a dig Dockall was on in Vietnam. Her team excavated a site the size of a football field. The only thing they found was one human tooth. That’s a lot of digging. But, that person was identified by that single tooth.

“It makes it all worth it when we identify someone,” Dockall said.

Dockall and Bunch have both identified too many remains to count according to the pair. But, unfortunately, the list of America’s missing is much larger. More than 78,000 service members are missing from World War II. Another 8,100 are missing from the Korean War, 120 from the Cold War and about 1,950 from Vietnam.

“The sad fact is I’ll be dead and gone before we finish a full accounting for all of our lost warriors,” Webb said.

Because of the work of the folks like Webb, Dockall, Bunch and the hundreds of other dedicated people at the lab, the list of airmen, Marines, soldiers and sailors awaiting that final flight home continues to get shorter each day.

Airman 2002"