Re: Repatriation a Daunting Task

Date: May 21, 2004

"Repatriation a daunting task

By MICHAEL E. YOUNG The Dallas Morning News

Marine Staff Sgt. Dennis Hammond returns home for burial this week, but hundreds of other U.S. military personnel remain lost or unidentified, decades after their deaths in Vietnam, Korea or during World War II.

The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, based at Hickam Field and Camp Smith in Hawaii, works tirelessly to bring their remains back, identify them and return them to their families. But it's a huge and complicated task, said Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara, a spokesman for the joint accounting command.

"Today we're in Korea working to find Americans from the Korean War. We're in Vietnam working recovery operations from that war. In the near future, we're heading to Europe for recovery operations for Americans from World War II," he said.

"But our biggest struggle is to get mitochondrial DNA samples from all of our families."

The military relies on mitochondrial DNA, rather than the nuclear DNA typically used in forensic medicine, because it preserves well in bones. Many of the casualties the joint accounting command tries to identify don't have blood samples on file, so investigators rely on bone shavings to make DNA matches.

Mitochondrial DNA is relatively stable across several generations, so samples can be collected from mothers, siblings, nieces and nephews and so on. But mitochondrial DNA is only passed along the maternal line, so the children of a missing soldier's brother couldn't provide a matching sample, but a sister's children could, Lt. Col. O'Hara said.

And the need is great.

"We still have 1,842 people from [the Vietnam War] who either haven't been recovered yet or haven't been identified," Lt. Col. O'Hara said. Add to that the hundreds of missing Americans from earlier wars.

"Fortunately, our families are very active, very supportive, and we all think this is probably the best job you could have – going back and getting information for families who have been waiting so long," he said.

"When we're able to find someone and are able to bring them home, it's a super event."

E-mail myoung@dallasnews.com "