DPAA, Arlington
We’ve often referred to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) and the tremendous work they do identifying the remains of our fallen.
Last Friday, April 4th, a C-20G jet landed at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, carrying the remains of 80 Marines killed in the battle for Guadalcanal.
The plane was greeted by more than 100 Marines and sailors at the base as it pulled near the air terminal. They saluted as service members wearing white gloves carried boxes of the remains, each topped with a folded American flag, from the tarmac to a van that would take them to the Defense POW / MIA Accounting Agency at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
The DPAA lab at Hickam is the world’s largest forensic skeleton lab.
On the island of Guadalcanal alone, the U.S. military lists about 374 service members still unaccounted for since the end of World War II.
Marine Staff Sgt. Stephon Smith, an explosives expert, was part of the team and carried one of the boxes of remains as he exited the plane. An Okinawa-based Marine, he is trained in identifying and disposing of World War II-era U.S. and Japanese explosives—skills that proved critical in retrieving the remains he held from the former battlefield.
The DPAA team was searching for Marines believed to have died during the Battle of Edson’s Ridge, where Marines repelled an attack by Imperial Japanese forces trying to retake the strategically important Henderson Airfield from the Americans. An estimated 111 Americans and as many as 800 Japanese troops are believed to have died in the fighting—sometimes also called the Battle of Bloody Ridge.
As can be imagined from the intensity, there is a LOT of unexploded ordnance in the Solomons – enough so that the article says about 20 people are killed or seriously wounded by it annually.
As the ceremony concluded, Lt. Gen. James Glynn, commander of Marine Corps Forces Pacific, told the service members in attendance that while many regard the Marine Corps motto “Semper Fidelis ”—Latin for “always faithful ”—as a slogan, “what you demonstrate tonight is that it’s a way of life, it’s a family, that there actually, truly is faith between Marines.”
Smith worked with the DPAA team but is not officially assigned to the agency ; he had been brought on to help as a member of an investigative team that was on Guadalcanal searching for potential remains. The team began its mission in February.
Smith said that helping to retrieve the remains was an honor, noting that “investigation teams aren’t typically digging.” But when they found the site, they realized a nearby river was washing it away and potentially moving the remains. They decided to work fast, and Smith got to work identifying and clearing World War II-era munitions, identifying both American and Japanese explosives in the vicinity. Military Times
Go read the article. You’ll be glad you did.
And, some good news. The Army is resuming horse-drawn caissons at Arlington funerals.
Starting June 2, the caissons will be used for two funerals per day, up to 10 per week, the Army said.The relatively low number is due to the number of trained squads and horses they have acquired.
You may remember a few years back when the horses were found to be in rough shape – inadequate food, poor browsing and ill health were all cited. Two had to be put down.
On Tuesday, Maj. Gen. Trevor Bredenkamp, commander of the Army Military District of Washington, told a small group of reporters that the Army has been working tirelessly with equine experts to buy horses and improve their veterinary care, training and equipment. He said the Army now has 46 horses and that 33 of those are in three squads that would be used for the caissons.
Bredenkamp said about $10 million a year is being spent to operate and maintain the program, adding that it costs about $900,000 to buy, train and equip a squad. Military.com
The Army is seeking 6 to 14 year old dark-colored Percherons or Percheron crosses to fill their ranks.
Not sure I have ever been to Arlington without seeing the caissons. Just did not seem right knowing they were not being used. The article says that 25 families deferred their loved ones’ funerals till the caissons came back. Sure hope they are at the head of the queue….their impact on the family cannot be overstated.
Category: Arlington National Cemetary, We Remember, WWII
Account for them all! Much respect for the work done on identifying our Fallen, by the folks at Hickman and at Offutt in NE. Much respect for the Ballsy Marine working with 80 + year old un-exploded ordnance. You got to know that crap is as unstable as any of the nutjobs we see from the Libs of Tik Tok. SALUTE!
Some traditions are worth the cost.
Even with all the rain we’ve had lately this has kicked up a lot of dust and pollen.
In Jan 2001 I was troop commander on a C-5 heading to Okinawa for a 90 day deployment. We went to Hickam via Travis and spent the night in Waikiki. We took off the next day for Kadena via Anderson in Guam. We had some aircraft issues upon landing in Guam. While we were sitting around the Pax terminal we found out that a plane supporting DPAA was due in from PNG with the remains extracted from I believe a B-25 found in the jungles there. We augmented the small ground element with our fifty folks to welcome the fallen return to US territory. I was pleased to hear some of my youngsters tell their compatriots to be sure and wake them up so that they could join in.
I had a great uncle an Old Breed Marine who served at Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester, and Peleliu. He died at the age of 80 after also having served with 1st MARDIV in Korea. I realized he would have turned 108 this year. I attended his funeral in 1997 and now many of his comrades in arms are back with us.
Welcome Home.