Hugh Tuller, a forensic anthropologist with the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, points to a map of Iwo Jima’s Hill 362 A showing locations of tunnels discovered during a JPAC site investigation of the island. Tuller’s JPAC team was on Iwo Jima looking for the remains of Marine Sgt. William H. Genaust, a combat photographer. (Bryce S. Dubee / S&S)
IWO JIMA, Japan — As members of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command wrap up their initial survey of the Iwo Jima battlefield, JPAC’s search continues worldwide for missing servicemembers.
“There are several hundred servicemembers still missing on this island, and thousands more around the world,” said Hugh Tuller, a forensic anthropologist with the Iwo Jima investigation team. “We want to find them all.”
The investigation for the remains of Marine Sgt. William H. Genaust on the island was different from many of the other searches conducted by JPAC, said Maj. Sean Stinchion, the team leader. “Generally we go to several sites and talk to first- and secondhand witnesses,” he said.
Witnesses often can provide a team with clues about where a specific incident occurred and where remains can be found, Stinchion said. If an investigating team finds enough evidence that a site may contain the remains of a fallen servicemember, the site will be recommended for recovery, he said.
Recovery teams then return to a site with equipment needed to conduct a thorough search of the area for any remains. A recovery mission can last anywhere from 35 to 60 days depending on the terrain, condition and location of the site.
On average, JPAC identifies about six MIAs each month, and at any given time, there are roughly 200 sites worldwide deemed as “ready for recovery,” according to the command’s Web site.
“We tend to move around a lot,” said Chief Petty Officer Pete Janse, a hospital corpsman who has traveled as part of a JPAC team to Cambodia, Laos, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and, most recently, Iwo Jima.
He explained that each team is composed of a core group, including a team leader, team sergeant, a medic and an analyst, and is augmented with other specialists, depending on the type of mission.
“It’s a race against time to find as many of these heroes as we can,” said Stinchion, alluding to the fact that as time goes on, many witnesses die and the landscape of past battlefields changes. “For me it’s just rewarding to be part of a unit that calls this its mission,” he said.
