DPAA Accounts for Three More
DPAA has identified and accounted for the following formerly-missing US military personnel.
From World War II
• PVT Evans E. Overbey, 93rd Bombardment Squadron, 19th Bombardment Group, US Army Air Forces, US Army, was lost in the Philippines on 19 November 1942. He was accounted-for on 1 June 2016.
From Korea
• SGT Bailey Keeton, D Company, 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, US Army, was lost on 2 December 1950 in North Korea. He was accounted-for on 2 June 2016.
From Southeast Asia
• Col. Patrick H. Wood, Detachment 5, 38th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron, USAF, was lost on 6 February 1967 in Vietnam. He was accounted-for on 27 May 2016.
Welcome back, elder brothers-in-arms. Our apologies that your return took so long.
You’re home now. 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 DNA from recovered remains against DNA from some (but not all) blood relatives can assist in making a positive ID for unidentified remains that have already been recovered, or which may be recovered in the future.
On their web site’s “Contact Us” page, DPAA now has FAQs. The answer to one of those FAQs describes who can and cannot submit DNA samples useful in identifying recovered remains. The chart giving the answer can be viewed here. The text associated with the chart is short and can be viewed in DPAA’s FAQs.
If your family lost someone in one of these conflicts and you qualify to submit a DNA 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.
(Note: hat-tip to TAH reader chindonya for links to DPAA’s FAQ page and the chart of eligible DNA donors.)
Category: No Longer Missing
Welcome home, men.
Rest well.
When I began my search this morning regarding these men, I did not expect to learn what I did regarding how one of them, PVT Overbey, came to be identified. It isn’t a pretty story. In fact, it pains me, but here it is. Overbey was a POW at Cabanatuan Prison Camp, Luzon Island. Burials were daily occurrences there and identifying information regarding the men to be buried was recorded by their fellow POWs. There were no individual graves and the Japs would not permit markers. Instead, men were buried in common graves and the graves numbered. Fourteen men were buried in Common Grave 717. Among them was PVT Overbey. His family and the families of the men with whom he was interred received the proper notifications. After the war, as graves were opened, the remains of the men in the common graves were re-interred in Manila. Only four men in Common Grave 717 could be positively identified. The families of the other men were informed that their loved ones’ remains were unrecoverable. This was understood to mean that remains did not exist, as can happen in many imaginable circumstances. In other words, the families were not informed that the remains of their sons, brothers, and husbands existed at all. The information regarding the remains was then deemed classified. And that was that for decades. In 2009, after the information was declassified, a cousin of one of the men originally buried in Common Grave 717 began reading the declassified information regarding Camp Cabanatuan. What he learned was the exact death date of his cousin, that his cousin had been disinterred, and that he was buried in Manila with the other nine men in a grave site marked “Unknowns.” What followed was ugly, including, ultimately, his asking a federal court to force JPAC to do what it steadfastly refused to do: match the “unknowns” to the names faithfully recorded by their fellow POWs at Cabanatuan. The order was issued and the remains were disinterred. And that is how PVT Evans Overbey and others came, at long last, to be identified. Welcome… Read more »
2/17 Air Cav: Thanks for the story. You’re right, it isn’t pretty.
And welcome home, men. You were never forgotten.
Welcome home brothers.
Rest in peace in your home soil now brothers. God be with your familys.
Welcome home Patriots.
Rest in Peace gentlemen. Your long journey is ended.
I can’t believe this. I have Colonel Woods MIA bracelet. It is still showing Lt. Colonel since it’s so old. He must have been promoted after that. I’ve worn that thing for years. Maybe I should send it to his family? Anyone know how to do that?