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GERMANY Sept. 1, 2015 marks the 76th anniversary of the Germany
invasion of Poland, which led Britain and France to declare war
against Germany. During the period from 1939 to 1945 approximately
400,000 U.S. military service members lost their lives. Many of
those service members were brought home to the United States for
proper burials, but more than 73,000 missing Americans from the war
still remain unaccounted for and are considered “Missing in Action”
(MIA).
After WWII ended in 1945, the U.S. Government
propositioned an effort toward the recovery of those MIA's and
developed an initiative known as, “The Return of World War II Dead
Program” which primarily focused its efforts on finding the
locations of aircraft crash sites, disinterment of temporary
military grave sites and researching records on former battlefields
in order to locate those left behind.
Over the years, the
U.S. Government continued the recovery efforts and stood up the
Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) on January 2015. DPAA was
created in order to strengthen and consolidate the DoD's global
investigation and recovery efforts for American service members,
while at the same time increasing their overall capabilities as an
organization.
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Members of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) and United States military volunteers gather for a group picture during a DPAA recovery mission near Riechelsdorf, Germany on Sept. 11, 2015. The team is in search of five MIAs that were lost in a B-24 crash from WWII in an effort to properly identify the services members and return them back to the United States. DPAA is a newly organized Department of Defense agency that's primary mission is to achieve full accountability of U.S. service members that lost their lives during past conflicts and bring closure to the families of those service members. (DoD News photo by USAF SSgt Brian Kimball)
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“Number one priority is as we work through our reorganization is
to maintain the mission and our ongoing operations. It's a difficult
task but it is one that we are proud to be a part of and we are
going to continue as we move forward.” U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Michael
Linnington (Ret.), the recently appointed director of DPAA, said
during a radio interview.
And that is exactly what is
currently taking place. The same day and month that marked the
beginning of Britain's and France's involvement in WWII in 1939, is
the same day this year that three DPAA teams performed recovery
missions within the European theater in the search of American WWII
MIA's.
One particular team near the area of
Riechelsdorf, Germany is searching for five missing servicemen that
bravely went down with their Consolidated B-24 Liberator in
September, 1944. The team has successfully recovered osseous
material along with personal effects and life support equipment from
the wreckage, but still much more meticulous work is waiting to be
done. The recovered items must be analyzed, cataloged and correctly
identified with 100 percent accuracy. Much of that work will be
completed at the DPAA Forensic Identification Lab located at
Joint-Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii.
Robert Ingraham, a
forensic archaeologist and recovery leader with DPAA, leads this
specific recovery team and takes the job very seriously.
“Our
specialist will look at all lines of evidence to make sure a legally
sound identification for the individuals we are recovering,”
Ingraham stated.
In the future, the organization is making it
a priority to increase and streamline communication efforts with the
family members of those who still have missing loved ones abroad, as
well as increase public private partnerships to enhance their global
recovery efforts.
Over the years, some of the families of the
missing services member do not get the opportunity to receive the
closure that they have so long hoped for, but the fight is not over,
and the U.S. service members of today have made a commitment to not
stop “Until they are Home”.
More photos available below
By USAF SSgt Brian Kimball
DOD News / Defense Media Activity
Copyright 2015
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