News from Korea and the Work of the DPAA

Master Sergeant George R. Housekeeper

I just caught an interesting news story in the Washington Post. You can read here of how the U.S. has received the remains of Americans missing from the Korean War. Toward the middle of the article, it mentions a center in Hawaii that houses a forensics lab for the identification of remains. The facility is where the Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency does the important work of identifying the remains of America's servicemen lost overseas.

The New York Times also has coverage of this story. Here is their article.

On Monday the group of teachers on the Memorializing the Fallen trip had a chance to tour parts of this facility and learn of the work of this agency. They prize themselves on the important and challenging work that they do. Their work goes beyond forensics. Anthropology and archaeology are central to this work too. Military know how, also, as it's usually a small contingent of active duty armed forces that lead these missions.

Dignity and honor is also central to it. The North Korean government has often been deceptive and dismissive of these remains which, as the articles above suggest, are often seen as bargaining chips by that government. Agencies like the DPAA offer families of these fallen heroes the dignity of knowing their loved one's fate and the chance to memorialize them with military honors.

The work is daunting, too. The DPAA in Hawaii is charged with identifying remains of the missing from two conflicts (World War II and Vietnam) in which the climate and geology conspire to make identification very difficult. As for Korea, the challenge comes more from the government that presides over where so many of our remains are.

This strikes me personally in two ways. First, I eulogized a Fallen Hero (S. Sgt. Mathewson) who was buried behind a rapidly shifting front line. He was buried temporarily with the hope of retrieval. Fortunately, he was retrieved and identified as early as 1954. His widow, children, and parents had the dignity of knowing for certain that he was found and buried with honor in the Pacific.

As you may remember from earlier posts, Mathewson had some tie to my area. It's also true that another American's remains identified by DPAA efforts may also have been from my area. The agency's most recent press release regarding M. Sgt. George Housekeeper indicate that he was from Lansdale.

At the heart of history is that it is the work of remembering things said and done. I'm glad to know more about how our armed forces carry out the mission of remembering what these fallen heroes have said and done.

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