The Federal Government says the remains of two Australian solders killed in Papua New Guinea in World War II have been identified.
The remains of Lieutenant Talbot Logan and Lance Sergeant James Wheeler will be interred at the Bomana War Cemetery in Port Moresby in December.
Lieutenant Logan was killed in January 1943 and Lance Sergeant Wheeler was killed in December 1942.
Defence Personnel Minister Greg Combet says it is pleasing to have identified the servicemen after a considerable amount of time.
He says Lance Sergeant Wheeler's remains had been held at the Australian High Commission in Port Moresby for a number of years.
A review is underway into why it has taken so long to identify the remains.
"It's not something that it's appropriate for me to comment on extensively, other than to say that the Government and Defence are conducting a review to identify exactly why there was such a period of time involved," he said.
"But it's taken over the last year or so to be able to do the identification that's been achieved."
Mr Combet says two other sets of remains thought to be Australian soldiers have also been recovered, but not identified.
"The identification work, that's been rather painstaking for almost a year, has been unable to result in identification of the two other sets of remains," he said.
"[So] they will be interred in the Bomana War Cemetery with a headstone saying 'Known unto God'."
This might sound a bit crazy.... but I always thought, if a person knew they had a missing relative in any of the wars, and they felt inclined to offer some DNA to the government to help possibly indentify a lost soldier..... wouldn't it be a good idea to have a data base or something that they could keep track of this, in hopes they could use it? Sorry if this doesn't make much sense getns, I am still feeling the effects of yesterday's celebrations at the local legion.
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