Army lab works to heal old wounds
By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer
Their missions occur long after the smoke of battle has cleared and a war has been won or lost. And no matter where they are sent — from jungles to mountaintops to isolated atolls — those missions have been the same for the past 30 years: Find and identify U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines killed and lost in action.
It is a job that the Army's Central Identification Laboratory, Hawai'i considers a sacred obligation. Since it was created in 1973 — at the time to identify Vietnam War remains — the lab has identified more than 1,100 service personnel dating to World War II.
And as staffers celebrate the lab's 30th anniversary this month, they will be working with U.S. forces fighting the war in Iraq and preparing to disinter a pair of Pearl Harbor attack casualties buried at Punchbowl as unknowns.
Johnie Webb Jr., deputy director of the lab at Hickam Air Force Base, said the identifications have the power to heal emotional wounds that have existed, in some cases, for decades.
"To all the families I have met through the years, even going back to World War II, that loss is still a very fresh loss to them," said Webb, who has been at the lab for 20 years. "There are a lot of unanswered questions. What really did happen to that loved one who went off to war?"
It turns out that his staff can tell them a lot, such as whether someone died in a plane crash or suffered for days, stranded and alone in a jungle. Sometimes, as in the case of the Korean War casualties who were executed, it sounds like too much. But the families appreciate it, he said.
"I think you have to realize that you are providing them with the information they have wanted for so many years," Webb said.
For Hugh Thomason, the recovery of his missing half-brother brought peace to aging relatives. Sgt. Clyde Thomason was one of 19 U.S. Marines who died in 1942 during a commando raid on Makin Atoll. The lab identified them in November 2000.
"I am the only sibling left," said the 81-year-old Thomason, who lives in Bowling Green, Ky. "It was important to me and his cousins and nephews. I think it was quite gratifying to all of them that the remains were discovered and brought back."
Not every family is so lucky, though.
One of the grim truths for the lab is that identifications can take years and sometimes come just weeks or months after waiting relatives have died. It doesn't happen often, but it happens enough that Webb views it as one of the hardest parts of his job.
"We look at ourselves and say why didn't we do it just a little bit quicker," he said. "We could have given them answers they waited a lifetime for."
The lab's mission expanded in 1976 when it was moved to Hawai'i from Thailand, where it had identified Vietnam War dead. The new mandate was to identify the nation's war dead, no matter the conflict.
It has been involved with a number of civilian identifications as well, including some from the 9/11 terrorist attacks, crewmen from the Ehime Maru, aviation crashes on the Big Island, Guam and Maui and the victims of the Jonestown massacre in Guyana in 1978.
Historian Ray Emory, a Pearl Harbor attack survivor, has been a supporter of the lab and a dogged researcher: He uncovered information that led to the identification in 2001 of Thomas Hembree, the first Pearl Harbor "unknown" identified in 60 years.
Emory's research will send lab personnel to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific this month to disinter remains that could be those of Navy Fireman 2nd Class Payton L. Vanderpool Jr.
"I think it is great, what they have done," said Emory. "Vanderpool's sister has been looking for her brother for years."
Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8012.
