Pentagon report faults efforts to find MIAs

The Pentagon's effort to find missing service members from past wars is wracked within inefficiencies, lacks a clear mission and fails to differentiate remains that can be recovered from those lost forever, an inspector general's report charged Friday.

As a first step, the Pentagon needs to limit its MIA search to those whose bodies might still be found, identified and repatriated, the report said, citing investigators who looked into the recovery process.

The Pentagon lists 83,000 American troops missing in action going back to World War II. But at least 50,000 of them are almost certainly beyond recovery since they were aboard ships or aircraft lost over deep ocean waters, the inspector general report said.

The report recommends that the Pentagon conclude that these remains -- mostly from World War II -- will likely never be recovered and notify the families.

Another problem is caused by confusion over who in the military can approve disinterring remains of service members buried as unknown casualties to try to determine their identities, the report said. As a result, some MIA cases that could be resolved remain open, the report said.

This includes an estimated 300 sailors killed in the sinking of the USS Oklahoma during the Pearl Harbor surprise attack on Dec. 7, 1941. Those remains were recovered and buried on land as unknown casualties. But the Navy has been reluctant to approve disinterring the remains, the report said.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, responding to the 108-page report, concurred with its recommendations and said he has already initiated changes.

Friday 17 October 2014

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/17/mia-inspector-general-report-assessment-pentagon/17442187/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=usatoday-newstopstories

continue reading

India: DNA profiling for armed forces by 2020

The Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) has set 2020 as the deadline for completing its ambitious project of DNA profiling and creation of a repository of all Indian armed forces personnel.

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of living organisms. DNA profiling is accepted as the most-advanced and reliable method of establishing identity of living individuals as well as dead bodies and body remnants.

Knowing the identity of each soldier, especially those deployed in the forward and high-risk areas, is critical in case of deaths in the battlefield or in action. The profiling helps to identify the remains of the soldier.

"So far, we have completed 10% of the project work ever since the new DNA-profiling lab went functional last year in the department of forensic sciences here," AFMC director and commandant Vice Admiral Sushil Kumar said on Wednesday.

Deputy commandant and dean Maj Gen Velu Nair said, "The immediate focus is on the high-risk group such as air force pilots, submariners, naval divers, navy pilots, soldiers posted in high altitudes and glaciers and those in counter-insurgency operations. We have completed profiling of the air force pilots and are now moving in a phased manner to others in the high risk group. The project will eventually cover all personnel from army, air force and navy."

"We had to train our staff at the National Forensic Laboratory in Hyderabad and all our collected samples are going to labs in Spain for validation and verification. This is a time-consuming process but, validation is vital as we can't afford any mistakes in profiling of our armed forces personnel. So far, all our samples and findings have proved correct," said Nair.

On the ongoing research related impact of environment on the health of soldiers in high altitudes and the glaciers, he said, "The project is in the last stage and we will publish the results in a medical science journal of international repute in a year's time. Prima facie our studies, over the last two-and-a-half-year, has shown that environment directly is the trigger in 75% cases of health problems suffered by the soldiers."

"We are looking into the genetic and the ethnic part by analyzing our findings to know why it occurs. Also, the idea is to prepare a road map for the army commanders to take a call on reinduction of personnel in the glaciers after a specific period and how much do we compensate them medically," said Nair.

A total of 750 troops were taken from Jammu to higher altitudes above 9,000 ft to go through stages of acclimatization. "In Ladakh region, we actually have been going every quarterly, so far we have made six to seven trips and have checked them out physically and in the labs i.e. testing blood samples at macro and micro (molecular) levels. Later, all 750 troops go turn by turn to the glaciers for 90-day stay and on their return we screen them to look for blood changes. Thereafter, we follow them up for a year to see if they may have got mild blood pressure or a clot in the vein. These are known facts but what we don't know is why it occurs," said Nair.

Profiling Facts

The project, covering over 1.13 million soldiers from Indian Army, will include Indian air force and navy personnel too as per risk and priority factors.

A DNA profiling centre and repository, costing Rs 2.5 crore, was inaugurated at AFMC, Pune in February 2012. The repository has the facility to store blood samples for up to 21 years.

Pilot exercise involving blood samples of 100 soldiers started in November 2012 for standardizing DNA profiling systems.

Full-scale operations were stuck in the medico-legal question of whether DNA profiling will be accepted as evidence in the court of law.

Sanctions from Union ministries of law and health, recognising the authenticity of the DNA extraction and tissue-typing process were then awaited.

New centre finally went functional last year.

Defence Research and Development Organisation has provided expert scientist for the profiling centre.

Thursday 19 June 2014

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/DNA-profiling-for-armed-forces-by-2020/articleshow/36781662.cms

continue reading

Indian Air Force to set up high-risk crew’s DNA database

In a first, the Indian Air Force has initiated a project for DNA profiling of its personnel, selecting a high-risk group of aircrew that undertakes dangerous missions for the first round. A database of the DNA records will be established in Pune.

The DNA samples of nearly 2,500 crew members who face “potential threat to life” during everyday operations are being collected. The project, initiated by the Directorate General of Medical Services (Air), was accelerated after last year’s helicopter crash in Uttarakhand in which 20 people died. It took several days before some of the bodies could be handed over to the families as they could not be identified.

A similar crash that took place in a high altitude area in the Northeast in 2011 also posed several difficulties for the medical teams in identifying the remains.

“Establishing identity of the deceased is not only a legal necessity but also a moral responsibility as it has emotional implications for the family members. DNA profiling of the available body parts is the only foolproof scientific method of establishing identity of the deceased,” said an IAF official.

“In the first phase, the samples of crew members who undertake dangerous missions are being collected, but this could expand across the force later,” said an official said. For the past few weeks, blood samples of all

IAF air crew in the high-risk group are being collected and the project is likely to be completed by July-end. “The blood samples being collected by single prick method will be recorded in FTA (Fluorescent Treponemal Antibody) cards, the process by which such a profiling is stored, to be part of the repository at the Forensic Department of the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) in Pune,” said an official.

The DNA profiling of air crew from the Army and Navy has also been given priority. Over the next few years, once the project includes the entire armed forces, the FTA cards for nearly 1.5 million personnel are likely to be generated, making it the largest repository of DNA profiles in the country.

Thursday 24 April 2014

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/iaf-to-set-up-high-risk-crews-dna-database/

continue reading

South Korea returns bodies of hundreds of Chinese soldiers

South Korea on Friday repatriated the remains of 437 Chinese soldiers killed during the Korean War six decades ago, making a gesture symbolic of warming ties between the two nations.

China sent a flood of soldiers to help its Communist ally North Korea, which invaded South Korea in June 1950. Its intervention saved the North, whose forces had been pushed back toward the country’s northern corner by American-led United Nations forces later that year. The three-year war ended in a cease-fire, leaving the divided Korean Peninsula technically in a state of war.

Over the years, when South Korea discovered the remains of hundreds of Communist soldiers in old battle sites, it kept them in a tucked-away, little-known temporary burial ground north of Seoul, until recently known as “the enemy cemetery.”

That it took six decades for the bodies of the fallen Chinese soldiers to return home bore testimony to political uneasiness rooted in a war that, while it long ago ended, was never formally put to rest.

Between 1981 and 1989, North Korea accepted the remains of 42 Chinese soldiers from South Korea and handed them over to Beijing. But it has never been willing to negotiate for the return of its own fallen soldiers. Accepting their return home would be seen as a gesture of closing the war, which North Korea insists will not be over until Washington signs a peace treaty with it.

After accepting the remains of another Chinese soldier in 1997, North Korea refused to accept any more, leaving the 437 Chinese soldiers stranded in the inter-Korean deadlock.

A breakthrough came last June when President Park Geun-hye of South Korea visited China to cultivate warmer ties with China. She offered to send the Chinese remains home as a good-will gesture, and Beijing welcomed it.

“The repatriation today will be a landmark for the two countries in healing the trauma from the past and moving toward coprosperity,” Vice Defense Minister Baek Seung-joo of South Korea said during a ceremony held at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul.

During the ceremony, the Chinese ambassador, Qiu Guohong, placed Chinese flags on dark brown boxes that contained the remains. Chinese soldiers carried them aboard a Chinese plane, which flew them to the Resist America and Aid Korea Martyrs Cemetery, the resting place for China’s Korean War dead, located in Shenyang, in northeastern China.

China remains North Korea’s last remaining major ally, while the United States is South Korea’s No. 1 military ally. But China has overtaken the United States as South Korea’s biggest trading partner since it normalized relations with Seoul in 1992. Each year, millions of Chinese visit South Korea as tourists.

Still, the existence of Chinese remains, and the “enemy cemetery” itself, has drawn little attention in South Korea, even though some Chinese tourists began visiting it in recent years. Built on a hillside, it is difficult to find.

Now with their Chinese companions gone, the remains of 770 North Korean soldiers stay marooned in the cemetery only a few miles south of the inter-Korean border, their forlorn grave markers emblematic of unresolved Cold War hostilities that still divide the Koreas. Their graves all face north, looking homeward, in contrast to the Korean tradition of aligning graves toward the south.

Also buried there are dozens of postwar North Korean agents, including commandos killed in an unsuccessful 1968 attack on the presidential palace in Seoul and a North Korean agent who killed himself after planting a bomb on a South Korean jetliner that exploded over Myanmar in 1987 with 115 people aboard.

The bodies of the agents cannot go home because their government has not acknowledged their missions.

Estimates of the number of Chinese killed in the war vary from 110,000 to over 400,000.

South Korea said it would continue to repatriate Chinese remains if it discovered more while excavating battle sites for its own war dead.

Friday 28 March 2014

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/29/world/asia/south-korea-returns-bodies-of-hundreds-of-chinese-soldiers.html?_r=0

continue reading

70 years later, U.S. soldier killed in Normandy returns home

U.S. Army Private First Class Lawrence S. Gordon — killed in Normandy in 1944, then mistakenly buried as a German soldier — will soon be going home to his family.

But don’t thank the American military for this belated return. The Pentagon declined to act on his case, despite exhaustive research by civilian investigators that pointed to the location of his remains.

Instead, Gordon’s family and advocates used the same evidence to persuade French and German officials to exhume Gordon and identify him through DNA testing. That’s right: the relatives of this U.S. soldier, who fought against the Germans, are relying on Germany to bring him back home.

Gordon’s case is another example of breakdowns in the American system for finding and identifying tens of thousands of missing service members from past conflicts. More than 9,400 troops are buried as “unknowns” in American cemeteries around the world. Yet, as ProPublica and NPR recently reported, the Joint Prisoners of War/Missing in Action Accounting Command (J-PAC) rarely disinters any of those men to try to use DNA to identify them. On average, just 4 percent of such cases move forward.

A Pentagon review ordered by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel of how the military is managing its mission to find and identify MIAs concludes next month.

Gordon’s family benefited from a fluke of circumstance: Gordon was in a German cemetery in France, not an American one, allowing his case to advance without the U.S. military’s participation.

Jed Henry, a filmmaker from Wisconsin whose grandfather served in Gordon’s unit, took up Gordon’s case in 2011. Henry scoured records, witness statements and various archives and pieced together evidence about Gordon’s whereabouts.

Gordon’s family knew only that he was killed in Normandy when a German shell hit his armored car in August 1944. Gordon’s bloody wallet was sent home to his mother in Canada. (Gordon had Canadian citizenship, but he was born to American parents and decided to enlist in the U.S. Army.)

Henry found paperwork revealing the Army had recovered the destroyed vehicle and two badly burned, unidentifiable bodies. They were buried as American unknowns.

After the war ended, the Army dug up both sets of remains, finding they wore German clothing. Using fingerprints, one was identified as U.S. Army Pvt. James Bowman, who had been in the turret of the car next to Gordon.

It was impossible to use fingerprints to identify the other set of remains. The bones were given a number, X-356, for lack of a name. Because of the German clothing, they were turned over to the Germans, who interred them in a crypt in France.

That evidence was enough to persuade the French and German governments to exhume the remains last fall and test for DNA, but not the Pentagon.

“Why is that we had enough evidence to convince the French and the Germans but not the Americans?” Henry asked. “Why is the burden of proof in America so much higher? It’s ludicrous.”

The April 2013 internal J-PAC memo argued that the evidence was too thin to eliminate the thousands of other men who died in the area during that time, concluding “that the association between [Gordon] and this set of remains was possible but improbable.” J-PAC historian Jeffery Johnson questioned whether it was even within the agency’s authority or responsibility to try to identify Gordon because he was a Canadian citizen.

Another J-PAC official told Henry in an email that the case didn’t meet the criteria for disinterment set by Pentagon policy. In practice, J-PAC’s scientific director, Tom Holland, has broad leeway to interpret that criteria and he has set an extraordinarily high standard that has led to the 96 percent rejection rate. J-PAC did only one World War II disinterment in 2013 and none in 2012.

So the critical tests on the remains were performed by France’s National Forensic Science Institute, which found that DNA from a molar matched that of Gordon’s nephews, according to a letter from the French prosecutor overseeing the matter.

Dirk H. Backen, the Brigadier General of the German Defense Attaché, sent a personal letter to Gordon’s namesake and nephew, Lawrence R. Gordon, after learning of the test results, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

“Eventually, justice has won. My congratulations for showing such honorable commitment, patriotism, faith and courage to walk that long path for your uncle,” Backen wrote. “He will come home and that is what counts. He fell in a battle against my countrymen, but he did this under a just cause: To liberate Europe from fascism and to restore peace, freedom and humanity. His sacrifice was not in vain.” There will be a ceremony on June 10 in France to turn Gordon’s remains over to his family. For the flight across the Atlantic, representatives of the Canadian, German and French military will escort Gordon, Henry said. It’s unclear if the American military will be there, he added.

The remains will go next to the University of Wisconsin for an anthropologist and odontologist to inspect. The lab there will also test the DNA to confirm the French results. The family has invited J-PAC to observe the process but has opted not to give the remains to the agency to examine independently.

The family won’t wait on the U.S. government to proceed with burying Gordon in Saskatchewan on Aug. 13, the 70th anniversary of his death, Henry said.

The Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office said in a statement that “we strongly believe that Pfc. Gordon will receive full military benefits and honors suitable to the honorable service and sacrifice that he made for all of our Countries during the Second World War.”

Gordon’s family and advocates are frustrated the U.S. military is just now stepping up to be involved.

J-PAC’s “mission statement says to achieve the fullest possible accounting of soldiers,” Henry said. “They’re never going to get everybody, but they can certainly do a hell of a lot better than what they’re doing.”

Sunday 23 March 2014

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/22/70_years_later_u_s_soldier_killed_in_normandy_is_finally_coming_home_partner/

continue reading

Soldiers killed during WW1 named via DNA from relatives

Ten soldiers who died in World War One and whose bodies were found in France five years ago have been named after DNA analysis of samples from relatives.

Since the discovery of the bodies in 2009 the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been tracking down potential relatives in the hope of identifying them.

The remains were spotted during construction work near the French village of Beaucamps-Ligny.

They were found alongside five other bodies which are yet to be named.

All the soldiers were with 2nd Battalion The York and Lancaster Regiment, and are believed to have died in battle on 18 October 1914.

The men are due to be given a funeral with full military honours in October, while investigations continue to try and track down relatives for the remaining bodies.

'Amazing'

Retired computer programmer Peter Hague, 70, of Chinley, Derbyshire said he was "astonished" to find that his cousin twice-removed Cpl Francis Carr Dyson was among those identified.

"It is always strange, and poignant moment when you discover you are related to someone like this, I suppose the sadness of his death is mitigated when you know they died during service for their country," he said.

Mr Hague, who is widowed with two children, said some years ago he had researched his own family background and was aware of the existence of Cpl Dyson.

And after posting details on a genealogy website, Mr Hague said he was contacted "out of the blue" by a genealogist working on behalf of the MoD.

"I gave a DNA mouth swab about six months ago, and it has led to this, it's amazing really," he said.

History

Defence minister Lord Astor of Hever said: "Our thoughts remain with all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of our country.

"Although these soldiers fell almost a century ago, the Ministry of Defence still takes its responsibility extremely seriously to identify any remains found, trace and inform surviving relatives and to provide a fitting and dignified funeral so they rest in peace."

The funeral of the men has been organised by the 4th Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment, which traces its history back to The York and Lancaster Regiment.

The 10 soldiers who have been identified are:

* Pte Herbert Ernest Allcock, born in Leeds, with family now living in Lancashire
* Pte John Brameld, born in Sheffield with family living in Yorkshire
* Cpl Francis Carr Dyson, born in Wakefield with family now living in Derbyshire
* Pte Walter Ellis, born in Doncaster with family living in Yorkshire
* Pte John Willie Jarvis, born in Rotherham with family living in Yorkshire
* Pte Leonard Arthur Morley, born in Boxhill, Surrey with family now living in Canada
* Pte Ernest Oxer, born in Rotherham with family living in Yorkshire
* Pte John Richmond, born in Nottingham with family living in Nottinghamshire
* Pte William Alfred Singyard, born in Newcastle upon Tyne with family now living in Lincolnshire
* L/Cpl William Henry Warr, born in Dorset with family now living in Somerset

A DNA sample from retired BT manager Barrie Richmond was able to identify his great-uncle Pte Richmond.

Mr Richmond of Ravenshead, Nottinghamshire said: "We are surprised and amazed and excited - and humbled. He was a great-uncle we didn't know anything about - perhaps it was the grief, that people didn't want to speak about it.

"We have found out so much about him. He enlisted in October 1904, signed on for three years, served in India, then worked in the lace making industry before being recalled in 1914.

"He was from Radford, Nottinghamshire, and married wife Ellen, but they had no children."

'Emotional'

For 69-year-old retired teacher, Marlene Jackson of Garstang, Lancashire, she discovered she had a great-uncle, when her DNA matched that of Pte Allcock.

She said: "It was quite a surprise when they initially phoned, I had no idea I had a great-uncle, it was never talked about in the family.

"They said would I mind giving my DNA, and I did and now it's confirmed.

"He was the brother of my grandmother Ethel, who died aged 102 in 1988. He had enlisted as a soldier and served in India and Ireland before the war, leaving his wife, also Ethel, and two daughters when he died.

"I feel quite emotional about this, I never knew I had a great-uncle who had died in France. We're going to the re-burial in October."

And for Maureen Simpson, 75, from Stradbroke, Sheffield, who is the grand-daughter of Pte Brameld, the process had allowed her to "close the book" on the mystery of her relative's final resting place.

"It will be lovely to see them properly buried. It is what they deserve," she said.

Saturday 22 March 2014

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26690387

continue reading

Four ways to repair the Pentagon’s effort to ID the missing

Last week, we wrote about the Pentagon’s efforts to find and identify the 83,000 service members missing from past conflicts – of which the military ID’d just 60 last year. As our story laid out, the mission has been hampered by outdated scientific methods, a lack of public outreach and cumbersome bureaucracy.

Lawmakers and Pentagon leadership have zeroed on the overlapping agencies and lack of clear chain of command in the mission. Last month, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel ordered a review of how the military manages the effort.

But streamlining the structure won’t be enough, many outside experts say. Here are four ideas to really fix the effort.

Overhaul use of DNA

The main agency involved is the Joint Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Command, which runs the forensics laboratory used to identify the remains of the missing. J-PAC starts with historical and medical records first and leaves DNA last.

That’s backwards from all other modern day efforts to identify the missing, which begin the process with DNA and let that powerful tool lead the process. Using DNA as the primary identification method was used in Argentina after the dirty war, in the Balkans after the genocide there, and here in the United States after 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.

If changes don’t bring the methods up to date with the latest forensics techniques, Ed Huffine, a DNA expert, said, “The system will still fail.”

Another issue is the type of DNA J-PAC uses. It relies on mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down from the mother and is consistent along the maternal line for generations. A grandmother shares the same mitochondrial DNA with her daughter and her daughter’s children, for example.

But other scientists involved in identifying the missing stopped using maternal DNA almost 20 years ago. Instead, in places like Argentina and Bosnia, scientists use nuclear DNA, which can be compared to the mother, father, children and siblings of the person to make a positive ID. It’s also faster and cheaper to process than mitochondrial DNA.

In Bosnia, they would extract DNA from a bone on a Monday, sequence the DNA on a Tuesday and do any necessary troubleshooting by the end of the week, said Huffine, who helped designed the effort in Bosnia. For the Pentagon, similar DNA processing often takes months.

Since J-PAC works decades-old cases, scientists would face times when nuclear DNA samples from immediate family might not be available. In those cases J-PAC must rely on maternal DNA, using, for example, the DNA from a missing soldier’s niece. But here too, experts say, J-PAC could make better use of DNA.

J-PAC won’t rely on maternal DNA to make an ID, because it can be shared across different families. However, even the most common mitochondrial DNA is only shared by 5 percent of the population – meaning J-PAC could be 95 percent sure of the person’s identity when using it, according to Joshua Hyman of the University of Wisconsin. He and others argue that DNA is the strongest and fastest place to start an ID, regardless of the type, rather than leaving it last in the equation.

Family samples of maternal DNA could also be combined with samples of paternal DNA to make a match. J-PAC should request all the different types of DNA to be sequenced at once.

Do a national, high-profile outreach campaign to collect needed DNA samples for WWII – before it’s too late.

Siblings are among the best DNA matches for WWII missing service members, especially if the MIAs had no children. That generation is dying. The Pentagon could enlist the help of Hollywood – Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg have been suggested – to publicize a massive effort to collect as many DNA reference samples from family of the missing. TV ads, social media, radio and YouTube videos and more could all be used to solicit participation. The U.S. government has actually given Argentina millions of dollars in grants to do just that.

The more samples for a missing service member are on hand the easier it is to make a match.

“Given that close relatives of WWII soldiers are older, how long are we going to wait to collect their DNA? They represent the best opportunity to find a match,” Hyman said. “Are we just waiting for the issue to go away, assuming that when they die there will be no one left that cares enough to cause a fuss?”

Do massive disinterments of 9,400 unknown service members to try to identify with DNA

More than 9,400 service members from WWII and the Korean War are buried as “unknowns” in American cemeteries around the world because of the limitations of science at the time. But many of them could now likely be identified if the Pentagon exhumed the remains for DNA testing.

“Seems to me like the logical approach,” Clyde Snow, a world-renowned forensic anthropologist said.

With the copious records the U.S. military has, the unknowns could be broken down into like groups from theater, battle or event, and dug up accordingly to keep it manageable.

In order to be both efficient and respectful of the remains, scientists say the bodies could be left in place and tested using a mobile DNA unit and then housed in a mausoleum while DNA cross referencing is done.

Embrace outside help

Experts say about 45,000 MIAs are recoverable, likely an overwhelming task for any one organization or agency. So some people formerly involved in the effort have suggested enlisting universities, historical organizations, military unit associations, veterans and other interested groups.

At J-PAC’s sister agency, the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office, there was an idea floated of building regional centers that could be responsible for researching and building cases on the missing from their area. That would tap into a pool of people who care deeply about those who are missing, building “a cadre of people who are focused towards the mission in manageable chunks,” said Navy Commander Renee Richardson, formerly of DPMO.

“We’d be leveraging all the things universities already do,” said Richardson. “If you go to a university, let’s say Harvard, and tell them, ‘from your class of ‘37, you still have three people missing from WWII.’”

This would require much more openness with records and findings than the Pentagon has been willing to share in the past, Richardson said.

In the search for remains – the hardest task of the mission – locals can often help. There are Belgians, for example, who live near the Battle of the Bulge and have long worked to find missing American soldiers. They have the a dvantage of speaking the native language and being a part of the community, but are often shunned by the Pentagon.

Anthropologists have also suggested outsourcing overseas archaeological operations for continuity and efficiency. Rather than flying scientists from Hawaii to spend a few weeks looking for remains in, say, Papua New Guinea, there could be a team stationed there. Their work would be continuous rather than filled with the time lags of sometimes years between digs that hinders J-PAC’s efforts.

Tuesday 18 March 2014

http://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/2014/03/18/four-ways-to-really-fix-the-pentagons-effort-to-id-the-missing/

continue reading

Toll rises to 40 in S. Sudan military boat sinking: army

UBA - South Sudan's military on Monday raised to as many as 40 the death toll from a "friendly fire" incident last week in which it sank one of its own river boats at night.

"The final death toll is between 37 and 40" from the incident last Wednesday in which the army fired at the boat transporting soldiers on the River Nile, military spokesman Philip Aguer told AFP.

Tensions remain high around border areas with Sudan, South Sudan's former civil war foe, and the boat was mistaken for an enemy craft in an area where rebel groups, which the South claims are backed by Khartoum, operate.

Aguer said the army had launched an investigation into the "unfortunate accident" involving a boat that was carrying some 170 soldiers from Melut toward Malakal, in South Sudan's Upper Nile state.

He said the ship's crew had not communicated clearly with South Sudan's army, the SPLA, about its movements.

"The boat left late, there was no information passed to the (river) station ahead, and the SPLA have orders not to travel after 6:00 pm, and to pull in at the nearest station to wait for daylight", he said.

"The commander of the force made a big mistake," Aguer said, adding that he was among those killed.

Aguer said soldiers onshore fired warning shots when the boat failed to stop at a river checkpoint in Lul, and that troops onboard returned fire.

"People in Lul were suspicious and when they fired a warning shot, they (the troops aboard the vessel) fired back," he said.

"Those at the station fired an RPG (rocket propelled grenade) and then things on the boat got very bad" as the vessel tilted and sank, he said.

"Most of the dead bodies are from the drowning, not bullets", he said of the 27 bodies pulled from the water, with at least 10 more presumed dead.

"Just like any other army in the world, we are taking this matter very seriously and investigating," Aguer said. "This is a serious mistake."

Tuesday 18 September 2012

http://www.modernghana.com/news/418240/1/toll-rises-to-40-in-s-sudan-military-boat-sinking-.html

continue reading

10 soldiers killed, 50 missing, as South Sudanese military boat sinks: army

At least 10 soldiers were killed and another 50 were reported missing after friendly fire caused a South Sudanese military boat to sink on the Nile river, the army said Saturday.

“It was an accident. The boat was travelling at night and passed before a (control) post at Lul, which tried to stop the boat. When it did not stop they fired at the boat and it sank,” army spokesman Philip Aguer told AFP, adding that there were about 170 soldiers on board.

“Ten bodies were retrieved from the water... there are about 50 still missing,” he said, adding that 112 survivors were picked up following the accident on Wednesday.

South Sudan gained independence in July 2011 after decades of civil war.

Transforming its former guerrilla movement into a fully functioning government and proper army is one of the new nation’s biggest challenges as is reining in militia groups.

In what analysts describe as a “proxy war” between the two former civil war partners, South Sudan claims that rebel militia groups are funded by Khartoum, while Sudan says that rebels in two of its rump states that formerly fought alongside the South still receive its support.

The two countries are currently in African Union-led talks in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to try and find a deal on border security.

Saturday 15 September 2012

http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/09/15/238199.html

continue reading

U.S. Army identifies remains of last missing soldier in Iraq

Washington (CNN) -- The U.S. Army said Sunday it has identified the remains of the last missing American service member unaccounted for in Iraq.

Staff Sgt. Ahmed K. Altaie of Ann Arbor, Michigan, was kidnapped October 23, 2006, after he left the Green Zone in Baghdad. The military said Altaie, then 41, and serving as a translator for the U.S. military, was visiting family members when he was abducted.

A group in February 2007 claimed on a militant Shiite Web site that it had Altaie, and posted a 10-second video of a man it claimed was him. The man in the video was Altaie, his uncle told CNN then.

Altaie's remains were identified on Saturday by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner at the Dover Port Mortuary in Delaware, the Army said.

27 Febr 2012

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/26/world/meast/iraq-missing-soldier-id/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn

continue reading

DNA profiling centre to be launched at AFMC

Lt Gen H Kakaria,Director General, Armed Forces Medical Services, will launch the DNA profiling centre at the AFMC on February 8 on the sidelines of the four-day 60th armed forces medical conference, which will begin in the city on February 7.

Presently, the identity of dead armed forces personnel is established by examining personal belongings on the body, studying the identification marks, comparing photographs and others. However, these methods become futile when there is extensive mutilation, disfigurement and decomposition of the body, officers said.

Such accidents happen when personnel are employed in hazardous tasks like bomb disposal, flying fighter planes, research in explosive materials as well as troops deployed in militancy-infested areas. Following such catastrophes, DNA profiling of the available body parts is the only fool-proof scientific method of establishing identity.

This conclave is an unique feature in the calendar of events of the Armed Forces as it brings together officers from all specialties to discuss, deliberate and disseminate new ideas. As the AFMC enters into golden jubilee year of its undergraduate wing, the highlight of this years conference is the 50th meeting of the Armed Forces Medical Research Committee (AFMRC) — the apex body which guides research in the medical services of the Armed Forces.

Express News Service - 5 February 2012

http://m.indianexpress.com/news/dna-profiling-centre-to-be-launched-at-afmc/908410/

continue reading