Missing servicemen identified

Arlington National Cemetery

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced July 18  that the remains of a serviceman, missing from the Korean War, have been identified and have been returned to his family for burial with full military honors. 
           
Army Sgt. Bernard J. Fisher of Wilkes Barre, PA., was buried July 16, in Arlington National Cemetery.  In January 1951, Fisher and elements of Company L, 3rd Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment (IR), 24th Infantry Division (ID), were deployed northeast of Seoul, South Korea, where they were attacked by enemy forces. During the 19th IR attempt to delay the enemy forces from advancing, Fisher and his unit moved towards a more defensible position, when the unit suffered heavy losses.  It was during this attack, that Fisher was reported missing. 

In July 1951, the U.S. Army Graves Registration recovered the remains of four men north of Shaha-dong, near Seoul, South Korea.  The remains were buried in the United Nation Cemetery at Tanggok, South Korea, and were disinterred and transferred to the U.S. Army’s Central Identification Unit in Kokura, Japan for laboratory analysis.

During the analysis the remains of three men could not be positively identified. In March 1955, a military review board declared the remains of the fourth to be unidentifiable.  The unidentified remains were transferred to Hawaii, where they were interred as “unknown” at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the “Punchbowl.”   

In 2012, U.S. officials reevaluated Fisher’s records and determined that with advances in technology, the unknown remains could likely be identified.  Following the reevaluation, the decision was made to exhume the remains for scientific analysis identification. 

In the identification of the remains, scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools, such as dental comparison and chest radiograph – which matched Fisher’s records.

Using modern technology, identifications continue to be made from remains that were previously turned over by North Korean officials.  Today, more than 7,900 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced July 18 that the remains of a serviceman, missing from the Vietnam War, have been identified and have been returned to his family for burial with full military honors. 

Navy Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Michael B. Judd of Cleveland, Ohio was buried on July 15, in Arlington National Cemetery.  On June 30, 1967, Judd was aboard a CH-46A Sea Knight helicopter that was attempting to insert a U.S. Marine Corps reconnaissance team into hostile territory in Thua Thien-Hue Province, Vietnam.  As the helicopter approached the landing zone, it was struck by enemy fire from the surrounding tree line, causing the aircraft to catch fire.  The aircraft crashed landed.  Although most of the reconnaissance team to survived, Judd and four other crew members of the team, died in the crash.

In 1993, joint U.S./Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) teams investigated the case in Thua Thien-Hue Province.  The team interviewed local villagers who claimed to have discovered an aircraft crash site in the nearby forest while searching for firewood in 1991.  The team surveyed the location finding aircraft wreckage that could not be associated with a CH-46A.

During the 1990s, joint U.S./ S.R.V. teams continued to investigated the loss in Thua Thien-Hue Province.  In 1999, the team interviewed the same local villagers who provide relevant case information and the joint team surveyed the crash site again, this time uncovering aircraft wreckage consistent with a U.S. military helicopter.

In 2012, joint U.S./ S.R.V. recovery teams began excavating the crash site and recovered human remains and aircraft wreckage from the CH-46A helicopter that Judd was aboard. 

Scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) used forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, including dental comparisons in the identification of Judd's remains.