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Staff Sgt. William E. “Blootie” Turner was killed in action
on December13, 1943.
“I remember that day when they announced in
our high school that Blootie Turner had died, the whole place got
real quiet. Blootie was a great football player and a better person.
He was the most popular kid in school,” said Patrick Harrison,
retired Brigadier General, and former high school classmate of
Turner.
Turner, a flight engineer aboard “Hell’s Fury,” a
B-26 “Marauder,” was among scores of Army Airmen involved in a World
War II bombing mission near Amsterdam.
As wave after wave of
allied aircraft advanced towards their objectives, German
anti-aircraft guns locked in. On the third and final wave, enemy air
defense artillery sheared the wing off of “Hell’s Fury” and sent it
plunging to earth in flames.
The sole survivor was the pilot,
who parachuted to safety only to be captured by the Germans and
taken as a Prisoner of War. Turner was among those who perished that
day.
Nearly three quarters of a century would pass before he
would receive the honors reserved for our Nation’s fallen heroes.
Gathering Clues
Turner was among more than 36,000 unaccounted for Army Soldiers
and Airmen from the Second World War alone. Generations later, the
Department of Defense leverages multiple teams and numerous
technological advances to find and identify the remains of lost
Soldiers.
Within the DoD lies the Defense POW/MIA Accounting
Agency. DPAA is tasked with recovering missing personnel, listed
either as Prisoners of War or Missing in Action, from past wars and
conflicts across the globe.
Repatriating Soldiers and Army
Airmen like Turner is the responsibility of the U.S. Army Human
Resources Command and its Past Conflicts Repatriation Branch.
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The remains of U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. William "Blootie"
Turner are transferred from funeral coach to the memorial garden,
during the interment service for Turner, August 22, 2017, at the
Nashville National Cemetery located in Madison, Tenn. Turner was
aboard a B-26 Marauder in December 1943, when the plane, nicknamed
"Hell's Fury," was shot down killing all on board except the pilot.
After years of painstaking work, Turner's remains were positively
identified and he was given proper military burial honors. (U.S. Army photo by Master Sgt. Brian Hamilton)
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Using a combination of historical records and
archaeology, the DPAA has teams searching worldwide for
ancient remains. Those teams comb specific areas based on
historical data in the hope of unearthing America’s missing.
Good record-keeping provides important clues throughout
the identification process.
“Every aircraft that went
down from World War II had a missing crewmember report done
on it,” said Greg Gardner, Past Conflicts Repatriation
Branch chief. “If a missing machine gun or engine piece is
found, then there will be a serial number somewhere. That
serial number will be listed on that missing crewmember
report.
When relics are confirmed to be U.S.
equipment, archaeologists – with permission from cooperating
governments – work to unearth any possible remains.
“We generally have very good access into many areas,” said
Gardner. “Areas where there are ongoing conflicts or a lot
of insurgency such as Myanmar or obviously North Korea, can
be challenging.
“One of the more surprising levels of
cooperation to most people that we have is actually with
Russia,” he said. “During World War II, our Army Air Corps
would take off from England, fly a bombing mission over
central Europe and fly on to Russia. The Russians kept very
good records and have been willing to share that information
with us.”
When DPAA determines the likelihood of
recovering remains from a specific area, recovery teams are
sent in to unearth those possible remains. If human remains
are recovered they are hand carried in sealed containers to
one of two labs, Hawaii or Offutt Air Force Base in
Nebraska, where medical examiners begin the identification
process.
Pieces Of A
Puzzle
Together, history and science play
a significant role in identifying the remains of fallen
service members. Historical records showing where units were
operating combined with material evidence can narrow the
scope from hundreds to tens of Soldiers or Airmen.
“For example if the lab receives remains recovered from the
area near Pusan in South Korea, we know there’s a good
chance that Soldier may have fought with the 24th Infantry
Division,” said Michael Mee, the PCRB Identifications chief.
“We can then look at the DPAA list of unaccounted for
service members and see just who is missing that may have
fought with that unit, at that time, in that area.”
Material evidence, such as weapons, aircraft debris, or even
jewelry, narrows the search even further.
“A serial
number can tell us a lot of things about who fought in a
particular area, but it goes deeper than that,” said Mee.
“Sometimes a simple inscription on the back of a wrist
watch can lead us to the identification of a whole flight
crew who may have perished in any given area.”
As is
in the case with aircraft wreckage, if an inscription leads
the lab to one positive id., then researchers can
cross-reference flight records to identify fellow
passengers.
DNA
Working with fragments of remains, medical examiners
working in one of two labs will attempt to draw DNA types
just as they would in a routine medical examination today.
In the past, bone fragments the size of a thumb were needed to
extract mitochondrial DNA. As the science developed, the size of the
needed fragment has decreased. Now enough DNA needed to make an
identification can be found in a fragment roughly the size of a
person’s pinky nail.
Contractors working for the PCRB
research and produce genealogy reports to locate relatives willing
to submit a DNA sample. Having two or more family members submit
different types of DNA makes the chances of a positive
identification that much greater.
“There are three types of
DNA that we use; nuclear, y, and mitochondrial.”
Nuclear,
being the most reliable of DNA types, is also the hardest to get.
“The problem with nuclear is there are only a handful of people
in a person’s bloodline who can donate,” Gardner said. “When you
look at the Soldiers who fought and died during World War II, most
of those were 18 to 21 years old and didn’t have children, which
rules out nuclear.”
Mitochondrial DNA when compared to
nuclear is more prevalent, but not as reliable.
“Once
mitochondrial DNA is drawn in the lab, they replicate it millions of
times and then run a comparison against a possible family member,”
he said.
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Taps is played during the interment of U.S. Army Air Forces Staff
Sgt. William "Blootie" Turner at the Nashville National Cemetery
located in Madison, Tenn., August 22, 2017. Turner was aboard a B-26
Marauder in December 1943, when the plane, nicknamed "Hell's Fury,"
was shot down killing all on-board except the pilot. After years of
painstaking work, Turner's remains were positively identified and he
was given proper military burial honors. (U.S. Army photo by Master Sgt. Brian Hamilton)
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“Looking at the physical characteristics of the Soldiers
who fought during World War II, for every 10 people who
fought during World War II, three out of those 10 will have
very similar mitochondrial DNA which means getting a match
does not always produce an identification.”
…and Beyond
Because the
Department of Defense only began collecting DNA samples in 1991,
nothing exists to compare remains from earlier time frames. And many
of the relatives who could provide comparative samples are already
deceased.
Dental records and DNA comparisons can give a
close match to a person’s identity, but as recent as two years ago,
clavicle bones have been used to refine the search. “What we’ve
learned in recent years is that a person’s clavicle can act just as
a fingerprint,” said Gardner. “They are unique.”
“In the
Korean War timeframe, chest x-rays were usually taken because
tuberculosis was so common,” he said. “DPAA recovered many of these
records, and if the service members’ remains include a clavicle,
there is a good possibility we can also make an identification off
of those.”
When a clavicle bone is recovered, scientists use
computer simulation to compare reference points between the bone and
any x-rays that may have been taken. Twelve or more matching
reference points increases the chance of a positive identification.
No Soldier Left Behind
In 2015, then Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel called finding,
recovering, and identifying the remains of these individuals “one of
our highest responsibilities.”
Each of the four military services has its own agency that works at
the direction of the DPAA to liaise with the families of those
missing or unaccounted for service members. For the Army, that
agency is the PCRB.
“We are the Army’s part of the Department
of the Defense’s overall mission to recover, identify, and then
return unaccounted for service members to their families for
burial,” said Gardner. “Our primary role is to serve the families.”
In the 1980s, President Reagan made recovering remains from
unaccounted for service members from Vietnam a priority. Under
President George W. Bush, Congress made unaccounted for service
members from Korea a priority and finally, in 2010, service members
from World War II were added.
The Department of Defense
maintains a list, online, of all missing or unaccounted for service
members. According to Gardner, that roster is constantly evolving.
“When the DPAA unearths the potential remains of persons they
think may be one of the names on this list, that’s when each of the
services goes to work; identifying next of kin, collecting DNA, and
so forth right down to the point when the service member’s identity
is confirmed and those remains are brought home to the United
States, given a proper burial, and all benefits are distributed,”
said Gardner.
“After all that is complete, then and only
then, do we close that case,” he added.
Family Member Updates
Within the Army’s PCRB lie two sections; one for case management and
one for identification.
“We serve as liaisons between the
DPAA and the family members,” said Ollie Green-Williams, Casualty
and Mortuary Affairs Specialist-Supervisor and Army Veteran with 21
years of service. “We are basically the front end of the process.”
The case management division is responsible for keeping family
members updated to the status of their missing service members.
“There are times when we have family members approach us and
inquire about a missing service member. Other times the DPAA will
contact us asking us to locate certain family members that may be
related to a certain service member,” she said.
According to
Green-Williams, that’s when contracted genealogy teams jump in to
help locate relatives. “We then make the necessary phone calls,
identifying who we are and what we’re doing,” she said.
The
PCRB also assists the DPAA with government sponsored briefings
called Family Member Updates. Teams of archaeologists, scientists,
and lab workers are brought in and given status updates into the
recovery efforts of the unaccounted for service members.
“In
addition to the status updates, teams will come in and collect DNA,
if needed, from family members,” said Green-Williams. “Once the DPAA
notifies us that a positive match is made, we pass that individual
case off to I.D. side of the house.”
Positive Identification
Once a positive identification is made, the PCRB sends out a
team member along with a Casualty Assistance Officer to brief family
members and assist with the interment process.
“There is a
lot of fulfillment that comes with this part of the job,” said
Jeannette Gray, Mortuary Affairs Officer and 9-year Army veteran.
“It is our job to go out and share the details of how a family’s
loved one was found. We also have the opportunity to provide
intricate details of the fate of that particular service member.
“There are a lot of emotions that go into it, but in most cases
there is a sense of relief and closure that we bring when we go to
do our briefs,” she said.
The identification section works
hand in hand with the Casualty Assistance Office to ensure that once
a positive identification is made, the appropriate family members
are notified and the burial process is initiated.
“There’s
Blootie!”
“His picture came on the television the other night
and I jumped up out of my chair and said ‘Man, lookey there. There’s
Blootie,” said Harrison.
In August 2007 the remains of an
unidentified person were found by an excavation crew looking to
build new housing near Aalsmeer in the Netherlands; the exact crash
site of the “Hell’s Fury.”
After going through the approval
process to excavate those remains, which can sometimes take years,
those located remains were taken to the lab in Nebraska.
Later, in 2012, Linda Tinsley was notified that the DPAA was looking
for relatives Staff Sgt. William E. “Blootie” Turner to submit DNA.
Tinsley, a cousin of Turner born in 1947, had never known him,
yet she felt she did.
“I grew up as a young girl knowing that
we had lost him and that he was dearly loved by the family,” said
Tinsley. “Our families would always camp together and prior to the
war, William would always be there.”
Finally, in 2017, after
confirming DNA matches between Turner, Tinsley and Tinsley’s sister,
Rita Susan Williams, it was confirmed: William E. “Blootie” Turner
would be coming home.
Turner was laid to rest at the
Nashville National Cemetery with full military honors, Aug. 22,
2017; nearly 74 years after he died aboard the “Hell’s Fury” over
the Netherlands during World War II.
His family always knew
that day would come because in the Army, no Soldier is left behind.
“I remember my aunt telling us that even though William was
gone, somehow she knew he would be coming home,” Tinsley said. “She
always believed that until the day she died. And you know what, she
was right.”
By U.S. Army Master Sgt. Brian Hamilton
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2017
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