World War II

Writing for the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune on July 19, Jeannine Aquino recounts a recent expedition to the jungles of Papua, New Guinea by a team of dedicated MIA hunters.

Three separate teams on three two-week trips searched for missing World War II crash sites in an effort to recover the remains of 60 American airmen missing 62 years.

A non-profit organization based in Minnesota and known simply as “MIA Hunters” makes it their mission to locate, recover, and bring home for burial these long-lost servicemen.

On this series of expeditions, eleven crash sites were located and potentially 38 American and 22 Japanese servicemen will finally be returned to their families.

There are still 78,000 servicemen listed as missing in action from World War II with about 70 percent of those in the Pacific Theatre of operations.

When the MIA Hunters find a site, they document its location, photograph the area, and leave identification markers. They then plan an American flag and offer a prayer for those who died there.

For more on the MIA Hunters, click here for their homepage.

MIA, Papua, New Guinea, MIA Hunters, Pacific Theater