News-Info-Alerts

Re: Team Returns From China with Remains

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: October 12, 2002

"Recovery team returns from China with WWII remains

by Ginger Couden

HICKAM AFB, Hawaii (Army News Service, Oct. 9, 2002) -- A 14-man search and recovery team out of the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory returned to Hawaii late last week with what is believed to be the remains of four American service members whose C-46 transport plane crashed in the Tibetan Himalayas of China in March 1944.

The aircraft was based at Sookerating, India, and was reported missing in flight enroute from Kunming, China, to its home base during World War II. It is believed the aircraft became lost, ran out of gas and crashed. The aircraft wreckage was located in a cliff face above a ravine.

The search and recovery team was in China for two months excavating the crash site located at about 15,600 feet above sea level.

The CILHI team consisted of a team leader, a team sergeant, a forensic anthropologist, two mortuary affairs specialists, a forensic photographer, and several augmentees from units around the world consisting of three mountaineering specialists, one medic, one flight surgeon, two linguists, and an embassy representative.

The team initially traveled from Hawaii to Beijing to Lhasa, China. In Lhasa, the team acclimated to the higher altitude. From there the team drove more than 600 kilometers to Naelong village, where the rugged road ended. It was then a three-day trek across rivers and up steep terrain on foot and horseback to the village of Langko. The team then had a daylong hike to a location at 15,500 feet where a base camp was constructed. The team climbed daily to the crash site.

Near the end of the mission, a four-man investigative element broke off from the team and spent seven days climbing three 15,000 foot mountains enroute to another crash site of a C-46 from World War II. The investigative element gathered information to assist CILHI researchers in correlating the second crash site to three unaccounted for American service members.

The remains recovered from the initial crash site in China were transported to the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii where they will be analyzed for identification potential. There, the world's largest staff of forensic anthropologists will derive biological profiles indicating the age, race, sex and stature of the remains.

The dental remains will be analyzed by the CILHI forensic odontologists who will compare them to dental records of those who were on the aircraft.

If an identification can not be made using those identification tools, the forensic staff may determine that the comparison of mitochrondrial DNA is needed. The identification of the remains can take anywhere from several months to several years, officials said.

(Ginger Couden is a public affairs specialist with the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii.)"