How 40000 US soldiers ‘vanished’ at sea during World War II due to…? Scientists are looking for them using…
Its estimated that the US has lost over 40,000 soldiers at sea since World War II, whose remains have still not been found.
More than 40,000 American soldiers are estimated to have ‘vanished’ at sea since as far back as World War II and subsequent conflicts, and their remained are believed to be buried near wreckage of ships and fighter jets at the bottom of the ocean floor. For decades, US authorities have made several attempts to retrieve the remains of these fallen soldiers, but to no avail.
How US is searching for remains of lost soldiers?
However, now the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) of the US Department of Defense has launched a collaborative research effort with top US scientists to locate the mortal remains of these soldier by analysing environmental DNA (eDNA). The novel method analyses microscopic DNA particles scattered in water and sediment to determine whether human remains ever existed there.
“Undersea investigations are extremely difficult because the remains often disintegrate. That’s why we decided to use eDNA as a biological tool,” a CNN report quoted DPAA’s Chief of Innovation Jesse Stephen as saying. According to Stephen, while conventional seabed excavation is expensive, slow, and often ineffective, eDNA is a sort of a new ‘biological scout’ that can detect traces of human DNA in extreme locations.
Samples collected from downed aircraft to hunt for soldiers’ remains
Initially, the research used samples taken from a crashed aircraft at the bottom of the Saipan harbor, and later water, and sediment samples were collected from 12 ships and aircraft from Italy and Lake Huron (US-Canada).
An old American aircraft, a Grumman TBF Avenger, shot down during the 1944 Battle of Saipan during World War II, now lies at bottom of the Saipan harbor, engulfed by coral reefs. There were three soldier on board when the aircraft crashed, and the remains of two of them have never been found.
Scientists have collected water and sediment samples from Grumman and other wreckage and sent them to a lab for analysis, CNN reported.
“Without physically collecting any animal or plant or human remains, you can determine if something was there. We can tell just from samples floating in the water,” says Marine biologist Kirstin Meyer-Kaiser of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who is involved in the DPAA’s research.
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