Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 10, 1994 TAG: 9404100131
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PETERSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Many of the sites, which have been researched by the Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii, are where officials believe U.S. aircraft were shot down, said Capt. Renee Roberts, commander of the 54th Quartermaster Company at Fort Lee.
"They know about where it went down," she said. "They have an eyewitness in some cases that will show them the site. From what I understand, the Vietnamese are for the most part very helpful."
Most of the 120 mortuary affairs specialists in the company were no more than infants when the war ended. But they believe their work may help relatives of the more than 2,200 missing soldiers.
"The families are probably still hurting," said Pfc. Roberto Ramirez, 22.
"It'll be a kind of peace," if positive identifications are made, said Pfc. Saul Colon, 19.
The Fort Lee soldiers will spend 20 to 25 days excavating sites. The group visited the sites in January and found what they believe are the remains of three soldiers.
They will be joined on the search teams by Special Forces medics, anthropologists and archaeologists.
When remains are located, they are given to the Vietnamese government for a two- or three-week period, during which a repatriation ceremony is held, Roberts said. The remains are then flown to Hawaii for a formal receiving ceremony.
A team including a dentist, a forensic anthropologists and an archaeologist run a series of tests on the remains in Hawaii to identify them. Much of the work relies on the dental records of missing soldiers.
"Quite often, all you'll have left is a jaw bone with some teeth in it," Roberts said. "It's almost like a fingerprint - your dental X-ray."
The Army, which has identified the remains of about 560 missing soldiers from Vietnam, has been conducting the search missions for some time. But because of the sensitivity of the work, the missions have only recently been made public, said Joy Whitmore, a public affairs specialist at Fort Lee.
Fort Lee trains all of the Army's active-duty mortuary affairs specialists. Other duties include searching debris at disaster sites, and the soldiers searched the Colonial Heights Wal-Mart after it was destroyed by a tornado Aug. 6.
Although there are many more unsolved cases from World War II (78,000 soldiers are still classified as MIA), and the Korean War (8,000 MIA), most of the searches have taken place in Southeast Asia.
"The focus has been on Vietnam, because it's more current and it was a lot more controversial," Roberts said.
by CNB