Another Four Are Home

From World War II

ENS Charles M. Stern, Jr., US Naval Reserve, assigned to the crew of the USS Oklahoma, was lost at Pearl Harbor, HI, on 7 December 1941. He was accounted for on 13 November 2018.

MM1c Ulis C. Steely, 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 14 November 2018.

Pfc Nicholas J. Gojmerac, USMC Reserve, assigned to Company Q, 4th Raider Battalion, 1st Marine Raider Regiment, was lost in the Solomon Islands on 20 July 1943. He was accounted for on 14 November 2018.

AMM1c Ira N. Slaton John O. Morris, US Naval Reserve, assigned to Carrier Aircraft Service Unit (CASU) 17, was lost at Tarawa on 16 December 1943. He was accounted for on 13 November 2018.

From Korea

None

From Southeast Asia

None

Welcome back, elder brothers-in-arms. Our apologies that your return took so long.

Rest easy. You’re home now.

. . .

Over 72,000 US personnel remain unaccounted for from World War II; over 7,600 US personnel remain unaccounted for from the Korean War; over 1,500 remain unaccounted for in Southeast Asia (SEA); 126 remain unaccounted for from the Cold War; 5 remain unaccounted for from the Gulf Wars; and 1 individual remains unaccounted for from Operation Eldorado Canyon. 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.

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Author’s Note: The correction above was due to a regrettable editing error in the original – specifically, an incorrect name. AMM1c Morris’s accounting was properly announced in a later article published on 14 July 2019.

Category: No Longer Missing