US Still Bringing Home WWII Dead

[Connaught Ranger]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-846275.html

US Still Bringing Home WWII Dead.

Photo Gallery link:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/us...cke-84840.html

Connaught Ranger.

[zundappuk]

Hi Connaught Ranger,

I encountered this particular team a few times when they had lunch at our local cafe on the Belgian/German Border at lösheim. I said to my wife, "hmm, a bunch of Americas looking tired and dirty travelling in a group of identical hire cars, I bet they are a team of from Hawaii searching for MIA's".
I spoke to a Dutch friend that has written a number of volumes on the Battle of the Bulge, and he confirmed who they were as he had been helping them, but said he couldn't mention the location, so I guess they must have cleared the site now.

Best

David
A Brit behind the Siegfried Line

[commanding]

Very interesting, and RIP to those MIA troops whose remains have not yet been found, and to those whose remains have been identified and returned.
I have rarely considered the number of MIA USA military in the European theatre, but there are no doubt many still unfound.
It is nobel work those current troops do in recovering the remains, no matter the war they were lost in, from WWII, Vietnam, WWI, etc. I was glad to see volunteers working along side them from the US military base.

[James]

My grandfather was MIA in April 1953 in Korea. He flew the B-26 and A-26 with the 8th and 9th Air Forces in WWII, and The Douglas B-26 in Korea. He was missing on a mission somewhere near the western part of the DMZ. My dad and uncle went to the Pentagon a decade or so ago (something that seems to have gained little media is the fact that the Bush II administration supported and provided for family members of USMIL MIAs from WWII - Vietnam to come and learn about what's going on and how IDs are made) and learned that his last radio transmission was "Strike complete, outbound from target area." The best the DOD can figure is that his remains, with his crew, are either in the western part of the DMZ (DPRK has never allowed searches in the DMZ) or he went into the East China Sea. I've researched and read other accounts that indicate his A/C was hit by ground fire and crashed in a rice paddy, and over flights showed no indication of survivors.

There were almost 80K U.S. MIAs in WWII, more than 8000 in Korea, and I think Vietnam MIAs are now at about 1700.

Something I kind of feel weird about is that I have no lived longer than my own grandad - he was 36 when he was MIA, I'm 38, and dad is 65.

[CanAT]

JPAC mission just wrapping up in Canada:

http://www.cp24.com/news/u-s-recover...water-1.896854

[commanding]

My grandfather was MIA in April 1953 in Korea. He flew the B-26 and A-26 with the 8th and 9th Air Forces in WWII, and The Douglas B-26 in Korea. He was missing on a mission somewhere near the western part of the DMZ. My dad and uncle went to the Pentagon a decade or so ago (something that seems to have gained little media is the fact that the Bush II administration supported and provided for family members of USMIL MIAs from WWII - Vietnam to come and learn about what's going on and how IDs are made) and learned that his last radio transmission was "Strike complete, outbound from target area." The best the DOD can figure is that his remains, with his crew, are either in the western part of the DMZ (DPRK has never allowed searches in the DMZ) or he went into the East China Sea. I've researched and read other accounts that indicate his A/C was hit by ground fire and crashed in a rice paddy, and over flights showed no indication of survivors.

There were almost 80K U.S. MIAs in WWII, more than 8000 in Korea, and I think Vietnam MIAs are now at about 1700.

Something I kind of feel weird about is that I have no lived longer than my own grandad - he was 36 when he was MIA, I'm 38, and dad is 65.

RIP to your grandfather.
Moving story James and thanks for sharing it. As I am same age as your dad, and you are about same age as my son-in-law also named James.
Glad your dad and uncle went to the Pentagon to find out the info on your grandfather and the Korean war mission. so many MIAs were aircrew/pilots.

I was in the Pentagon a little during my tour of duty in the army, including an extremely rare visit to the office of General Creighton Abrams when he was the new Chief of staff of the Army in 1972. I was only an E4 on official business so you can imagine how rare that visit was.

[James]

Both my mom and dad are now retired U.S. Army officers. My mom served 22 years, and my dad served 20. Mom was an officer the entire time, but dad got his draft notice in 1967 and enlisted. He was a Russian linguist/radio operator, and served with the Army Security Agency. He sat on hill tops and flew in airplanes over Germany to intercept Russian radio transmissions in 1969-1971. In the meantime, my mom was caring for grievously wounded serviceman from Vietnam - you go hit so bad you didn't stay in SVN, you didn't go to Japan, you went straight to San Francisco.

In the past decade I spent about 4 years in Afghanistan, a cousin has spent a year in Iraq, and a brother in law has spent 2 years in Iraq. We're all home and healthy now.