From USA Today:
"Why America scours the earth for its fallen soldiers"
No nation has ever tried so hard to
recover so many remains from battlefields so distant and so old. This is
manifest each Memorial
Day at new grave sites bearing remains discovered or identified over the
past 12 months. Since Memorial Day 2011, the bodies of 79 servicemen from wars
past have been accounted for, including 20 from World War II. The military's "full accounting mission," originally
focused on Vietnam, is expanding. As many World War II cases have been
investigated over the past two years as in the six previous, according to the
POW/MIA Accounting Command. Last year, the war was the focus of a third of the
military's 63 recovery expeditions. Only the United States has the technology, the personnel (a
force of about 600) and the money for such a task. Recovering a single set of
remains can involve everything from ground-penetrating radar to hand-panning
mud, and easily cost a million dollars.
^ It only makes sense that a country that is willing to send its military to fight and die are also willing to spend the resources to find their remains no matter how long it takes. Today is Memorial Day and it is only fitting that this article shows the commitment the US takes to make sure no soldier is ever left behind. It is a very time-consuming and expensive program, but something that needs to be continued and expanded. ^
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