WWII Missing in Action Soldiers Identified

[Shortdawg]

NEWS RELEASE from the United States Department of Defense

No. 617-05
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jun 17, 2005
Media Contact: (703)697-5131
Public/Industry Contact: (703)428-0711

WWII Missing in Action Soldiers Identified


The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today
that
the remains of two Army soldiers missing in action from World War II have been
identified and returned to their families for burial.



They are Sgt. John T. Puckett, Wichita, Kan., and Pvt. Earnest E.
Brown, Bristol, Va. Puckett will be buried tomorrow at the Ardennes American
Cemetery, Neupre, Belgium. Brown was buried last week near Bristol, Va.



On Jan. 15, 1945, during the Battle of the Bulge, Puckett and Brown
were searching for German soldiers in a wooded area near Elsenborn, Belgium.
They
were ambushed and came under intense enemy machine gun and mortar fire.
Eyewitnesses indicated they were killed, but their bodies could not be recovered
due to enemy activity.



Following the war, remains of American soldiers were recovered and
identified, but not those of Puckett and Brown. Then in 1992, two Belgian
nationals located and excavated an abandoned fighting position in the forest
east
of Elsenborn. They recovered remains and other evidence and turned them over to
U.S. authorities in Europe.



Scientists of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Armed
Forces
DNA Identification Laboratory used mitochondrial DNA as one of the forensic
tools
to identify the remains as those of Puckett and Brown.



Of the 88,000 Americans missing in action from all conflicts, 78,000
are from World War II.


For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to
account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO Web site at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo/
or call (703) 699-1169 .