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ORISE Participants Help U.S. Army Bring Home Missing Heroes

This article includes excerpts from an article by CPT Todd Heussner and Dr. Thomas Holland in Quartermaster Professional Bulletin, Summer 1999.

 

 

 

 

 

 

ORISE research participant Greg Berg slogs through a rice paddy as he helps to establish the initial site grid for an F105-D aircraft's crash crater in Vietnam. Normally a grid is laid out with stakes, but in 1.5-foot-deep muck and tall rice, stakes were useless. The team used bamboo to mark the corners of the grid unit.

While each headstone at Arlington National Cemetery represents someone who made the ultimate sacrifice so that others may enjoy the benefits of freedom, thousands more have not yet returned home to their loved ones and families. Their remains await recovery in former battlefields around the world.

But their friends and families do not wait in vain. The U.S. Army’s Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii (CILHI), is ever vigilant in bringing home America’s missing heroes. And through ORISE’s research participation program at CILHI, college students and faculty have the opportunity to contribute to this most noble duty. Current participants include Sabrina Buck, who holds a master’s in anthropology from East Carolina University, and Greg Berg, who earned his master’s in anthropology from Arizona State.

Sabrina and Greg are engaged in entry-level anthropological studies and hope to be assigned to more advanced case work as they increase their expertise. In addition to the anthropological studies, mentors at CILHI encourage the ORISE participants to propose significant research and seek publication.

Greg says that he is "immensely enjoying" his appointment at CILHI. "It gives me an excellent opportunity for growth in my profession. I am working with stellar people in the field," he said.


The CILHI and Its Mission

The CILHI is the field-operating element of the Casualty and Memorial Affairs Operations Center, U.S. Total Army Personnel Command. The CILHI searches for, recovers, and identifies remains of unaccounted-for American military personnel, certain American civilian personnel, and certain allied personnel from World War II, the Korean War, Southeast Asia, the Cold War, and other conflicts and contingencies.

The CILHI’s mission is worldwide in scope. Recently a team deployed to Tibet to recover the frozen remains of airmen killed during World War II. At the other extreme, a team deployed to the jungles of Nicaragua to excavate the wreckage of a B-24 aircraft that crashed in the early 1940s. The Search and Recovery Operations section maintains 13 standing teams that carry out the CILHI’s mission.

 
In recent years, the focus has been on the former battlefields of the Vietnam conflict—Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. However, with the collapse of the former Soviet Bloc, CILHI’s personnel now have unprecedented access to sites involving Cold War losses. Also, recent breakthroughs in negotiations with North Korea are allowing increased access to more than 8,000 losses associated with the Korean War. This increased access could lead to the return of many more service members to the soil  that they fought to defend.

For Sabrina, the international travel seems to come naturally. "We completed our first mission to Vietnam, returning in late October," she reported. "Unfortunately, the November mission to Vietnam was cancelled because of weather, but that did give us the opportunity to attend a 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ORISE participant Sabrina Buck takes notes in a logbook at an excavation site.
conference called Advances in Personal Identification in Mass Disasters." Sabrina, on a coin toss with Greg, also won the opportunity to go to France in November for anthropological research on a WWII case.

Since 1992, the CILHI has conducted extensive recovery operations in Southeast Asia under the operational control of Joint Task Force–Full Accounting (JTF-FA). Congress mandated JTF-FA to achieve the fullest possible accounting of U.S. service members whose remains were not recovered after the Vietnam War. Southeast Asia missions to Vietnam and Laos usually take place six times a year with six teams deploying to Vietnam and three teams deploying to Laos. Typically, one team will deploy to Cambodia about twice each year. To date, the CILHI has conducted 54 rotations to Vietnam and more than 24 rotations to Laos. The teams remain in the field 30-35 days per rotation.

 

 Typical Mission Cycle

The mission begins with the selection of a case within the Casualty Data Analysis Section’s archives. This section maintains the personal medical and dental records of deceased U.S. service members whose remains have not been recovered and identified. The section also provides the teams with detailed analysis of the events that preceded and followed the loss of a missing service member by researching reports, official duty logs, eyewitness reports, and local witness testimony.

From this information, the teams determine the equipment and supplies needed for a successful recovery operation. Then, team members are screened for current vaccinations and go through mission-specific equipment training, mission briefings, and safety briefings.

When traveling to Southeast Asia, teams leave from the CILHI’s home at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, and make a two-day stop in Pattaya, Thailand, to pick up mission-specific equipment and coordinate with the Joint Task Force-Full Accounting detachment commander. Detachment commanders help solve any problems that the CILHI teams may encounter and make sure of all preparation and coordination before a team’s arrival.

Because Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia are still communist countries, the team members must first meet with Vietnamese officials to determine the local rules and lay the foundation for the excavation.
Interviewing Witnesses

After these meetings, each team travels to the excavation site to interview witnesses. For an aircraft crash site, the anthropologist and team commander ask questions about when the aircraft went down, what the aircraft looked like, and the appearance of the pilot. The team compares the witness’ stories with the facts provided by the CILHI Casualty Data Analysis Section.

If the account of a witness is close to what is known of the incident, the team travels to the site to see how many local workers are needed to help excavate, determine the site’s layout, and estimate the site’s size in square meters.

In Vietnam, an extra step is required at this point. The recovery team and the team’s Vietnamese counterparts must negotiate a compensation price for the land used during an excavation.

The Excavation

The excavation begins with a metal-detector survey to identify any ordnance and material evidence. The anthropologist sets up a grid system so that all evidence can be marked and tagged easily; this information is then used to create a picture of the crash or burial site.

Excavation continues until all remains are recovered or until the anthropologist determines that all possibilities of recovery have been exhausted. For example, when a team is excavating an aircraft site, their objectives are:

• First, to recover all or as much of the remains and personal effects of the crew members as possible.

• Second, to recover enough air crew-related equipment (such as parachute material, equipment or helmet material) to prove that the crew members were or were not in the aircraft when it crashed.

• Third, to recover material evidence such as identification tags (dog tags) or data plates from the aircraft to positively identify the aircraft.

When the recovery team stops finding material evidence and has exhausted all possibilities of recovering remains, the anthropologist recommends closing the site. All recovered remains and personal effects are tagged and returned to the laboratory for analysis and identification.

The Final Journey Home

Once received at CILHI, the remains are assessed for identification potential. One of the 16 forensic anthropologists and two dental X-ray experts assigned to CILHI attempt to establish individual identities using standard forensic techniques and procedures. During this stage, the scientists examine the remains and may use state-of-the-art computers, a scanning electron microscope, and radiological equipment.

Although the emerging field of mitochondrial DNA is proving to be an invaluable tool in the identification process, dental radiographic comparison continues as the mainstay of identification. Dental remains are examined for restorations or unusual characteristics. These findings are compared to the dental records of U.S. service members whose remains have not been recovered, resulting in a list of candidates who most closely match the characteristics of the teeth in the laboratory.

Simultaneously, a forensic anthropologist begins analyzing the skeletal remains. Deliberately working with no prior knowledge of the physical characteristics or even the number of individuals believed to be associated with the case, the anthropologist

develops a biological profile for the remains. Typically this includes the numbers of individuals represented, age, sex, stature, and indication of injuries and any anomalies. Once the profile is complete, the anthropologist compares these characteristics with the known, recorded features of the individuals supplied by the Casualty Data Analysis Section.

 

CILHI Worldwide Missions

CILHI missions elsewhere in the world can be more complicated than those in Vietnam, Cambodia, or Laos. When deploying to a country other than these, the team commander must make all arrangements for a successful mission. This includes determining equipment requirements; getting permission to enter the country, permits to excavate, air movement plans and lodging; meeting with local officials; and interviewing witnesses.

In some cases, special preparation is required. For example, one recent excavation took place at 12,800 feet in Irian Jaya (formerly Netherlands New Guinea). The team’s extensive training for the mission included mountaineering and acclimatizing before deployment to eliminate or reduce some of the environmental factors posed by the site.

When the analysis is complete, the information goes through a series of verifications to determine if the evidence supports identification of the remains. If all is approved, a representative of the military service contacts the family and arranges to explain the case findings to them.

At this point, the family may have the case file examined by an expert chosen by the family. When the family accepts the final review, the remains associated with the case are transferred to a location selected by the service member’s family for burial. An escort accompanies the remains to the final resting place for burial with full military honors.

The recovery and identification process may take years to complete. Some remains may never be identified. Despite obstacles, the CILHI remains committed to the fullest possible accounting of all service members killed during the defense of their country.

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