Another Five Return
DPAA has identified and accounted for the following formerly-missing US personnel.
From World War II
FM2c Albert Renner, US Navy, assigned to the crew of the USS West Virginia, was lost at Pearl Harbor, HI, on 7 December 1941. He was accounted for on 26 August 2019.
S2c Brady O. Prewitt, 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 23 August 2019.
S1c Stewart Jordan, US Navy, assigned to the crew of the USS Nelson, was lost in France on 12 June 1944. He was accounted for on 28 August 2019.
From Korea
CPL Charles H. Grubb, US Army, assigned to M Company, 3rd Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, was lost in North Korea on 1 December 1950. He was accounted for on 28 August 2019.
CPL Gudmund C. Johnson, Jr., US Army, assigned to K Company, 3rd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, was lost in North Korea on 31 July 1951. He was accounted for on 28 August 2019.
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. 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 is found in one of the 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.
Category: No Longer Missing
Welcome Home Warriors. We Salute your Service and pay Honors to your Sacrifice.
Welcome home.
Welcome home to all. Fair winds and following seas.
S1c Stewart Jordan
“In May 1944 Nelson steamed to England to stage for the coming Normandy invasion. While moored alongside a tanker at Plymouth, England on 24 May, her port screw fouled a mooring buoy, causing extensive damage to the screw and shaft. Nelson was placed in drydock where the screw and shaft, deemed beyond repair, were removed. But the need for fighting ships was so great that Nelson got underway on 2 June with only a starboard screw. At Milford Haven she rendezvoused with a convoy, and by 8 June was in the Normandy assault area.
The next day she steamed into position No. 13 on the “Dixie Line” as part of the anti-submarine and E-boat screen around the Omaha beachhead. E-boats were the German version of PT boats – speedy, agile, hard-hitting, and hard to hit. Armed with 40 mm guns and torpedoes, they specialized in night attacks. On the night of 8/9 June several destroyers on the “Dixie Line” had taken under fire and chased several of these E-boats, sinking two.
Nelson was anchored in position 13 the night of 12 June. Thus far her only contact with the enemy had been in the form of a glide bomb which had exploded harmlessly off the starboard quarter during her first night in the area. At 01:05 on 13 June she made a radar contact, challenged the contact by flashing light, and opened fire. The target slowed, turned away, and split into three distinct blips. The destroyer had loosed ten salvos when a torpedo struck her just aft the No. 4 gun mount blowing off the stern and No. 4 mount. Maloy stood by to transfer personnel, and Nelson was taken in tow. Twenty-four of her crew were killed or missing and nine wounded”
From Wikipedia
Welcome home to them all.
I keep a look out for the day, or days, when I can finally stop wearing my MIA bracelets for two Marines who didn’t come home. One from the Chosin Reservoir and one lost over Laos.