A separate building inside another building, their modest entrance way opened to a most fantastic laboratory and staff of dedicated professionals. These men and women are so passionate about the work they do. In a nutshell these amazing people identify the remains of unknown fallen service men and women and repatriate them with their next of kin.
While the DPAA location in Hawaii may be known to more people,
the separation of the two coincides with the work they do. Hawaii concentrates on the pacific areas such
as Vietnam, Korea, etc. while Omaha concentrates on European theaters of
combat. Interestingly, and in contrast
to the usual division of location, the entirety of the work on the USS Oklahoma
is done in Omaha. To date, of the 429
sailors and marines lost on the Oklahoma, 200 service members have been
identified. There is a wall in their briefing room with photos of those
identified as well as place markers for those yet to be identified.
The work continues and DPAA is using the latest technology
to identify remains. Going far beyond
even DNA analysis, the use of stable isotopes is pushing their ability to
identify remains far beyond what was once imaginable. For more info on the great work DPAA does,
check out: https://www.dpaa.mil.
