Another Two Are Home

DPAA has identified and accounted for the following formerly-missing US military personnel.

From Korea

• SGT Christopher Y. Vars, E Company, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, US Army, was lost on 11/29/1950 in North Korea. He was accounted for on 8/13/2015.

From Vietnam

• 1st Lt Stanley G. Johnson, Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 364, Marine Aircraft Group 36, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, USMC, was lost on 12/3/1965 in Vietnam. He was accounted for on 8/5/2015.

You’re no longer missing, my elder brothers-in-arms. Our apologies that it took so long.

Rest in peace now. You’re home.

. . .

Over 73,000 US personnel remain unaccounted for from World War II; over 7,800 US personnel remain unaccounted for from the Korean War; and over 1,600 remain unaccounted for in Southeast Asia (SEA). Comparison of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from recovered remains against mtDNA from a matrilineal descendant can assist in making a positive ID for unidentified remains that have already been recovered, or which may be recovered in the future.

TAH reader HMCS(FMF) noted in comments elsewhere that DPAA’s web site now has what appears to be a decent “Contact Us” page. The page doesn’t have instructions concerning who can and cannot submit a mtDNA sample or how to submit one, but the POCs listed there may be able to point you in the correct direction if you’re interested. If you think you might possibly qualify, please contact those POCs for further information.

If it turns out you qualify to submit a mtDNA sample, please arrange to submit one. By doing that you just might help identify the remains of a US service member who’s been repatriated but not yet been identified – as well as a relative of yours, however distant. Or you may help to identify remains to be recovered in the future.

Everybody deserves a proper burial. That’s especially true for those who gave their all while serving this nation.

Category: No Longer Missing