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CILHI TEAM LEAVES FOR PAPUA NEW GUINEA TO
ALASKA TO RECOVER MIAs
HICKAM AFB, Hawaii - A search and recovery team from the
U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii will deploy this
week to Alaska to excavate the crash site of a World War II PBY-5
aircraft that went down in 1942 with seven service members.
The recovery effort will be conducted
on the Alaskan Aleutian Island of Kiska. The team will first arrive
on Adak Island where it will load approximately 8,000 pounds of
equipment aboard a chartered boat. The boat will carry the team,
its equipment and a helicopter to Kiska Island. The team will stay
aboard the boat for the duration of the three-week excavation,
using the helicopter to reach the site located at an elevation
of 2,750 feet on the northwest side of the Kiska Volcano.
According
to military records, a U.S. search team located the aircraft
wreckage in 1943 and buried all service members in a common grave
at the crash site. Attempts were made in 1946 and 1947 to recover
the
service members but teams could not reach the site due to heavy
snow. The CILHI team will conduct the recovery at the optimal time
of year when the snow and ice accumulation are expected to be at
their lowest.
CILHI analysts have been working with the professor
who initially discovered the aircraft wreckage in 2001, while
he was on Kiska Island conducting unrelated research.
The recovery
team consists of nine members who possess highly specialized
skills in forensic anthropology, logistics, photography, medicine,
explosive ordnance disposal and mortuary affairs. There are 18
teams at CILHI which search for and recover remains of American
military and civilian
personnel unaccounted-for from World War II, the Korean
War, the Cold War and the
Vietnam War.
For more information please go to the website at www.cilhi.army.mil or contact the CILHI Public Affairs Office at (808) 448-8903
ext. 109, ext. 506 or 112. contact the CILHI Public Affairs
Office at (808) 448-8903 ext. 109, ext. 506 or 112.
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