In memory of the missing

by Airman 1st Class Ashley Williamson
4th Fighter Wing Public Affairs

9/22/2015 - SEYMOUR JOHNSON AIR FORCE BASE, N.C.  -- The Prisoners of War/Missing in Action Remembrance Week was held, Sept. 14-17, here to remind Airmen of those who served as POW/MIAs.

Every year, POW/MIA Remembrance Week is held to pay respect to the POWs or MIA's who did not return home from war.

"There are so many people who have served before us, giving their lives and going into unknown dangers to fight for our safety and security as a nation," said Master Sgt. Benjamin Ackerman, 4th Contracting Squadron contracting officer. "Too many of those same people have never made it home, and their loved ones have been left to wonder what has happened. I could not imagine not having that sense of closure, and to be able to be part of anything that can show these families that their sacrifice, and the sacrifice of their loved ones, is not forgotten, it is truly something that anyone that has a patriotic heart should do."

The week kicked off with a 5K run in front of 4th Fighter Wing headquarters where more than 150 Airmen participated. A motorcycle precession led the 5K run.

"It's important because we don't want to forget," said Master Sgt. Katie Neeley, 4th Aerospace Medicine Squadron dental flight chief. "You get busy with your day to day life, work, everything going on. Sometimes you forget where we came from, who paved the way for us, today as military members, not just in the Air Force, but every service."

Information booths were also displayed throughout the 4th Force Support Squadron, and two free movies, with POW/MIA themes, were shown at the base theater. The week's events also featured a 24-hour name reading and run at the 2-mile track. During the run, teams alternated running with the POW/MIA flag and reading the names of fallen heroes. The run ended at the closing ceremony for the National POW/MIA Recognition Day.

"The 5k and 24-hour runs were both awesome in their own rights," said Ackerman. "The 5k because this was the first year we did it and had about 150 runners involved, and the 24-hour run because I think the tie in of the end of the run into the closing ceremony with a motorcycle escorted transfer of the flag was pretty awesome."

At the ceremony, a recitation of the Loneliest Prayer by Del "Abe" Jones was read, four F-15E Strike Eagles performed a missing man flyover, and retired U.S. Army Gen. Dan K. McNeill commemorated POW/MIA service members for their courage and honor.

"We're here to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves, those who have not come home," McNeill said. "On some quiet evenings, if we listen closely, we can hear the quiet sobs of a mother or a spouse for someone who didn't come home."

Table set to remember

by Senior Airman Deana Heitzman
31st Fighter Wing Public Affairs

9/18/2015 - AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy -- "We call your attention to this small table, which occupies the place of dignity and honor," reads Tech. Sgt. Maurice Carbajal, 31st Communications Squadron knowledge management center NCO in charge, while members of the base honor guard sharply pop to attention.

When this line is read from the historic script, the Prisoners of War/Missing in Action table ceremony begins, kicking off Aviano Air Base's POW/MIA Remembrance Week.

"They are unable to be with their loved ones and families today, so we join together to pay a humble tribute to them," Carbajal continued with the script.

According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, there are 83,114 service members who are still unaccounted for since World War II. Across many military installations, attendees honor these service members by displaying a "missing man table" in dining facilities and during official ceremonies.

"This table symbolizes the fact that members of our Armed Forces are missing from our ranks. We call them POWs and MIAs," Carbajal continued.

During the ceremony, honor guard members presented symbolic items to those who are missing, while the narrator explained the meaning.

"The single red rose in the vase signifies the blood they have shed to ensure the freedom of our beloved United States of America," Carbajal read.

With five different service hats placed on a round table draped in white, they are adorned with a single red rose, a bread plate with a salted lemon, an inverted glass and an empty chair.

"The slice of lemon on the plate reminds us of their bitter fate. The salt, when sprinkled onto the plate, reminds us of the countless fallen tears of families as they wait," Carabajal continued to read. "The glass is inverted--they cannot toast with us this day. The chair is empty--they are not here. The candle is reminiscent of the light of hope, which lives in our hearts to illuminate their way home."

The ceremony ended with an excerpt for all the missing comrades to return to their ranks and their families.

"Seeing this table gave me the opportunity to honor not only those who are still missing, but the families who are still waiting for their loved ones to come home," said Carbajal. "I always tear up thinking about how my children would feel if they would constantly be waiting for me to come home."

Annually, the Air Force Sergeants Associations hosts various events leading up to National POW/MIA Recognition Day, the third Friday in September. This year, Team Aviano came together with a memorial run, retreat and the table ceremony to remember fellow service members.

Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency Searches for the Missing

By Air Force Staff Sgt. Brian Kimball DoD News Features, Defense Media Activity

SEMBACH, Germany, September 18, 2015 — September 1 marked the 76th anniversary of the German invasion of Poland, which led Britain and France to declare war against Germany, setting off World War II.

During the period from 1939 to 1945, approximately 400,000 U.S. service members lost their lives. Many of those troops were brought home to be buried in the United States, but more than 73,000 Americans missing from the war still remain unaccounted for and are considered missing in action.

Streamlining Recovery Efforts

After the war ended in 1945, the U.S. government began an effort to recover those MIA’s and developed an initiative known as, “The Return of World War II Dead Program,” which focused its efforts on finding the locations of aircraft crash sites, disinterment of temporary military gravesites and researching records on former battlefields in order to locate those left behind.

Over the years, the recovery efforts continued under a variety of defense agencies, most recently the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. The agency was established in January to strengthen and consolidate DoD’s global investigation and recovery efforts for American service members while increasing their overall capabilities as an organization. The agency consolidated three organizations: the Defense Prisoner of War Missing Personnel Office, the Joint Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Command and the Life Sciences Equipment Laboratory.

“[Our] priority, as we work through our reorganization, is to maintain the mission and our ongoing operations," said DPAA Director Michael Linnington, a retired U.S. Army three-star general. "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.”

And that is exactly what is currently taking place. The day that marked the beginning of Britain’s and France’s involvement in World War II 76 years ago is the same day this year that three DPAA teams performed recovery missions in Europe to help find Americans missing in action from World War II.

5 Missing Airmen

One team near the area of Richelsdorf, Germany, is searching for five missing airmen who went down with their B-24 Liberator in September 1944. The team has successfully recovered bone matter along with personal effects and life support equipment from the wreckage, but much more work is still 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 archeologist and recovery leader with DPAA, led the recovery team in Germany.

“Our specialist will look at all lines of evidence to [determine] a legally sound identification for the individuals we are recovering,” he said.

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 that enhance global recovery efforts.

While some families of the missing have not yet received the closure that they so long hoped for, the people of DPAA have made a commitment to continue the search, keeping with their motto, “Until they are home.”

Airman Missing From World War II Accounted For

The Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that servicemen, missing from World War II, have been accounted for and their remains are being returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

Army Air Forces 1st Lt. William P. Cook of Alameda, California; Flight Officer Arthur J. LeFavre of Red Bank, New Jersey; Staff Sgts. Maurice J. Fevold of Chicago, Frank G. Lane Jr. of Cleveland and Ward C. Swalwell Jr. of Chicago; and Sgt. Eric M. Honeyman of Alameda, California, have been accounted for and will be buried with full military honors. Cook was buried Oct. 18, 2014, in Oakland, California. Fevold was buried Oct. 20, 2014, in Ft. Dodge, Iowa, and Lane was buried May 2 in Willoughby, Ohio. Honeyman was buried on June 22 in Trail, British Columbia, Canada. LeFavre will be buried on Aug. 18 in Arlington National Cemetery. The group representing the crew will be buried on Aug. 18 in Arlington National Cemetery. Swalwell will be buried on Aug. 20 in Arlington National Cemetery.

On Dec. 23, 1944, Cook along with five other B-26G Marauder crewmembers took off from Saint Quentin, France, on a mission to bomb an enemy-held bridge in Eller, Germany. The aircraft was shot down by enemy anti-aircraft fire near Seffern, Germany, near the Belgium border.

Following World War II, the Army Graves Registration Command (AGRC) conducted extensive field investigations and was unable to locate the aircraft and the crew. In May 1949, AGRC concluded the crew members were unrecoverable.

In 2006, a group of researchers from Airwar History Working Group Rhine-Moselle and History Flight -99th Division MIA Project located the wreckage of a B-26G associated with the loss of this crew, near Allmuthen, Belgium and notified the U.S. Army Mortuary Affairs Activity – Europe. In 2007, a Department of Defense (DoD) team investigated the site and recommended it for excavation.

In 2012 and 2013, another DoD team excavated the crash site and recovered human remains, aircraft wreckage, and personal effects.

To identify Honeyman’s remains, scientists from DoD and AFDIL used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools including, partial Y-Chromosome Short Tandem Repeat (Y-STR) DNA, which matched Honeyman’s paternal-line cousins.

To identify Cook’s remains, scientists from DoD and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools, including mitochondrial DNA, which matched Cook’s maternal-line cousins.

To identify LeFavre’s remains scientists from DPAA and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools, including, mitochondrial DNA, which matched LeFavre’s maternal-line niece and grandniece.

To identify Lane’s remains, scientists from DPAA and AFDIL used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools including, partial Y-Chromosome Short Tandem Repeat (Y-STR) DNA, which matched Lane’s paternal-line nephew.

To identify Fevold’s remains, scientists from DoD and AFDIL used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools including, mitochondrial DNA, which matched Fevold’s maternal-line niece.

To identify Swalwell’s remains scientists from DPAA and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools, including, mitochondrial DNA, which matched Swalwell’s maternal-line sister and niece.

Marine Missing in Action from Korean War Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a serviceman, missing in action from the Korean War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Marine Pfc. Richard S. Gzik, of Toledo, Ohio, will be buried today, at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, DC.  On Dec. 2, 1950, Gzik and the other Marines of M Battery, 11th Artillery Regiment, 1st Marine Division, came under attack on the west side of the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea.  It was during this battle that Gzik was killed in action and his remains were buried alongside the road leading to Hagaru-ri.  Later that month, the withdrawal of U.N. forces from the Chosin Reservoir region made it impossible to recover Gzik’s remains.

In 1954, United Nations and Communist Forces exchanged the remains of war dead in what came to be called “Operation Glory.”  All remains recovered in Operation Glory were turned over to the Army Central Identification Unit for analysis.  Those which were unable to be identified, given the technology of that time, were interred as unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii -- the “Punchbowl.” 

In 2012, analysts from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) re-examined the case records and determined that advances in technology could likely aid in the identification of the unknown remains as Gzik.  Once the remains were exhumed, scientists from JPAC used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools, including dental records and radiographs, to validate Gzik’s identification.  

Using modern technology, identifications continue to be made from remains that were previously buried as unknown.  Today, 7,947 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War. 

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing Americans, call 703-699-1169, or visit the DPMO web site at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo .