Another Returns
DPAA has identified and accounted for the following formerly-missing US personnel.
From World War II
CMM Dean S. Sanders, US Navy, assigned to the crew of the USS Oklahoma, was lost at Pearl Harbor, HI, on 7 December 1941. He was accounted for on 9 April 2018.
From Korea
None
From Southeast Asia
None
Welcome back, elder brother-in-arms. Our apologies that your return took so long.
Rest easy. You’re home now.
. . .
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: per information provided by AW1Ed, apparently the issue of missing Korean War personnel will be raised by the POTUS if and when the POTUS meets with Lil’ Kim. Perhaps that will increase the rate at which remains from that conflict of US MIA personnel are returned and identified. Of the 7,700+ still MIA from that conflict, roughly 5,300 were lost in North Korea.
Category: No Longer Missing
Welcome Home.
Welcome home, CMM Sanders.
Rest well.
CMM is, I believe, a Chief Machinist’s Mate. Different times, different rating structure.
Rest in peace on your home ground, CMM Sanders.
Welcome home Brother. Rest in peace in your home soil. God be with your family.
Months after Pearl Harbor was attacked, the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a story entitled, “22 Phila. Men Listed Among Dead on Navy’s Far-Flung Battlefront.” The story (link below) gave a thumbnail personal account of each casualty, accompanied by 17 pictures, including Chief Sanders photo. The few lines about the newly married chief end on a particularly poignant note.
“Dean Stanley Sanders, 35, chief machinist’s mate, was married a little more than four months when Jap bombs smashed his ship at Pearl Harbor. He was wed in Phoenix, Ariz. last August 30 and ordered to sea the following month. “His wife, Mrs. Jennie J. Sanders, came to Philadelphia to stay with her mother at 2910 Frankford ave. when her husband sailed. She planned to go to the West Coast and spend the Christmas holidays with him.”
http://fultonhistory.com/Newspapers%2023/Philadelphia%20PA%20Inquirer/Philadelphia%20PA%20Inquirer%201942/Philadelphia%20PA%20Inquirer%201942%20-%203756.pdf