Two More Are Home
DPAA has identified and accounted for the following formerly-missing US military personnel.
From World War II
• FM1c Warren G. Nelson, Company E, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, 2nd Marine Division, USMC, was lost on 20 November 1943 on Tarawa Atoll. He was accounted for on 5 October 2016.
From Korea
• CPL Milton T. Bullis, Medical Company, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, US Army, was lost on 1 December 1950 in North Korea. He was accounted for on 28 September 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.
Author’s Notes: The rank abbreviation and service for Warren G. Nelson of “FM1c” appears to be correct. During World War II, the USMC had a small number of nonstandard rank titles (and, presumably, matching abbreviations. One of them was “Field Music First Class”, which was equivalent to Private First Class. Field Music First Class was Nelson’s rank.
Category: No Longer Missing
If Warren G. Nelson’s rank looks unfamiliar to you, it may be because you, like me, never saw it before. FM1C is Field Musician First Class. “The Division’s Own” refers to the 2nd Marine Division Band. According to its website, the band was formed from elements of the 2d, 6th, and 8th Marine Regiment Bands at Wellington, New Zealand. It was supposed to provide some mobile R & R but the band fought side by side with Marines and sailors on Tarawa, Tinian, Wake Island, Guadalcanal, and Saipan.
Welcome home Brothers.
Welcome home brothers. Rest in peace in you home soil. God be with your families now.
Welcome home, men.
Rest well.
Every time Hondo publishes one of these I think about how we once had a country that was willing to sacrifice to make the world a better place. And the world was made better-Japan and South Korea today are evidence of that. It didn’t happen quickly and it didn’t seem certain at the time, but the sacrifice of men like these-and the understanding by our leadership that those sorts of sacrifices required them to be steadfast themselves-made it so. I think we know which part of that equation has changed.
Indeed. The country produces great young men, with every ounce of iron and degree of heart that their grandfathers and great grandfathers possessed and displayed.