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A mud-caked pair of size nine combat
boots (above) is among the latest World War I I artifacts to emerge
from Germany’s Hürtgen Forest, scene of a bloody battle that saw
some 31,000 U.S. casualties. Found with the boots last summer
were the bones of two soldiers. The task of identifying the men falls
to the Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), established
in 2003 to consolidate Pentagon efforts to find missing military
personnel, including 84,711 soldiers, airmen, sailors, and marines
from World War I I onward whose fates remain uncertain.Click to expand related graphic.
Every year JPAC dispatches forensic teams to long-quiet battlefields throughout Europe, Southeast Asia, and the South Pacific as well as sites of plane crashes and sunken vessels. When remains are recovered, they are sent to JPAC’s laboratory in Hawaii, the world’s largest forensic anthropology lab. There scientists analyze bones, teeth, and DNA, which can be compared with samples from relatives of the missing. They also search for clues among personal effects. A wallet was found with the boots.
A case ends with family notification. Sharon Bannister was five years old in 1972 when the jet carrying her father, Stephen A. Rusch, crashed in Laos. At JPAC, 35 years later, she was shown two fragments of his teeth and presented with her father’s dog tag, found at the crash site by a JPAC team. She accompanied his flag-draped coffin to Arlington National Cemetery. “It was just two tiny teeth,” she said. “But they answered so many questions.” —Peter Gwin
Item: U.S. Army boots
Conflict: World War II
Location: Germany
Case status: In progress
Photo: Jonathan Kingston
Graphic source: Department of Defense, March 2009
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Comments
Jun 14, 2009 1PM #
This was a real tragedy..like all wars..But these were the Eisenhower forces, I think..and not my favorite general..who was PATTON...Patton was by far the most aware of his forces...Did you ever read the poetry Patton wrote..? GREAT stuff..He believed in reincarnation..and believed he had fought in Africa as a Roman in the past. he also predicted his own death..Amazing man...Jub..Mia
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