Five More Are Home
DPAA has identified and accounted for the following formerly-missing US military personnel.
From World War II
• PVT Earl J. Keating, 126th Infantry Regiment, 32nd Infantry Division, US Army, was lost on 20 November 1942 on Papua New Guinea. He was accounted for on 6 November 2015.
• Pvt. Robert J. Carter, G Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, USMC, was lost on 20 November 1943 on Tarawa. He was accounted for on 10 November 2015.
• Capt. Arthur E. Halfpapp, 87th Fighter Squadron, 79th Fighter Group, US Army Air Forces, was lost on 24 April 1945 in Italy. He was accounted for on 6 November 2015.
From Korea
• CPL George P. Grifford, 37th Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division, US Army, was lost on 30 November 1950 in North Korea. He was accounted for on 7 November 2015.
From Vietnam
• SFC Billy D. Hill, 282nd Aviation Company, 14th Aviation Battalion, 17th Aviation Group, 1st Aviation Brigade, US Army was lost on 21 January 1968 in South Vietnam. He was accounted for on 12 November 2015.
You’re no longer missing, elder brothers-in-arms. Our apologies that your return took so long.
Now you’re home. Rest in peace.
. . .
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.
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 refer you to someone who can answer that question – or may be able to answer the question themselves. If you think you might possibly qualify, please contact one of those POCs for further information.
If your family lost someone in one of these conflicts and 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.
Author’s note: the original version of this article had a typo in the date of loss for SFC Hill. That error has been corrected above.
Category: No Longer Missing
RIP brothers, and welcome home!
The finding of Captain Halfpapp’s remains and plane near the Po River were well reported in his home state of Pennsylvania. He was lost two weeks before VE Day while leading a group attacking unspecified vehicles on a road adjoining the river. According to official reports, he was in the lead, was presumed to have been hit by ground fire, rolled, and crashed. According to one family member, he will be buried alongside his Mom, her only son. That source also said that Captain Halfpapp was on his 103rd mission (!) when he joined the Fallen and could have hung up his flight gear twice over but elected to stay in the fight.
Welcome home, Captain Halfpapp. You were not forgotten.
welcome home… Heroes… salute!!!!!!!!
Rest Well….
SFC Billy D. Hill was manning a gun on his bird on January 21, 1968 when the aircraft was struck. The date rings a bell with some of you. For others, January 21, 1968 was the preliminary round, and unofficial start, of the TET offensive which began when Khe Sanh, a Marine base, was hit hard by mortars and rockets. Later in that month the whole country would erupt. This account of SFC Hill and his fellow troopers is well worth a read: http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/h/h051.htm
Salute.
Sad story. Not forgotten MSG Hill and SSG Elliot.
There is only one Earl Keating listed on the 1920, 1930, and 1940 census records for Louisiana. The 1940 record shows Earl J. Keating was 25-years old, single, and living at home with his parents, Michael and Cecile, and a brother, Edmond. In 1941, before the war, the Red Arrow Division relocated to Louisiana and, thereafter, Earl became a soldier in the Division’s 126th Infantry Regiment. The men were trained for battle in Europe but were redirected to the Pacific, to Australia, and from there to New Guinea to fight the Japanese. The 126th was tasked with marching over 130 miles under the most miserable circumstances one can imagine. They became known as the Ghost Battalion. It was here that Earl Keating joined the Fallen, somewhere during or at the end of that impossible trek, on this very date in 1942: 20 November.
Welcome home, soldier. Thank you.
Welcome home.
I see that another Tarawa Marine is back. There is still a lot to do there. There were about 1,000 Marines that were documented as being buried there in field cemeteries, close to half have not been recovered. Improper survey of the graves, mother nature knocking over the markers, military construction, lack of concern/ disrespect by the natives and apathy by the government has to hundreds of them still laying in the shit hole.