On Memorial Day, we honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for the nation. Those include warfighters who are still declared missing in action.
Many of us will pass May 25 along Lake Michigan beaches or on the waters of the Chain O’Lakes, giving little thought to those who died in wars defending democracy from enemies who would do our nation harm. Others will visit area cemeteries, planting mini-American flags on veterans’ gravesites as a mark of respect, attend parades or community observances.
Grieving families of missing U.S. soldiers, sailors and Marines who died in battle or as prisoners of war wonder what became of their loved ones who never came home from conflict. So do veterans organizations and the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, tasked since 2015 with searching for the missing. They continue the military’s promise that those left behind will not be forgotten.
Glenview lawyer William Coulson is also curious about those who were lost during World War II in actions on Pacific islands. Coulson’s father, Robert Coulson, was Waukegan mayor from 1949 to 1957.
The elder Coulson was a state representative and senator until 1973. He served in the Office of Strategic Services, forerunner to the CIA, during World War II.
Over the Memorial Day weekend, William Coulson, who is also a member of the Regional Transportation Authority board of directors, will be on a ship sailing the central Pacific. He is visiting WWII sites in Tuvalu, Tarawa and Makin islands, the Gilbert Islands, Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau, the site of the bloody Peleliu battlefield, and where many battlefields remain undisturbed to this day.
He has written magazine pieces about his various travels, like to Papua New Guinea, the Solomons, including four trips to Guadalcanal, where U.S. Marines engaged in fierce fighting in August 1942 in their first beach landing of WWII.
Others followed as the U.S. came up with the Pacific island-hopping strategy aimed at closing in on the Empire of Japan. That blueprint eventually ended the Pacific Theater war in September 1945.
During previous visits to Pacific battle sites, Coulson has discovered wartime relics, such as GI dog tags, and returned them to their owners’ families. It’s a small, but respectful gesture, and for some, it closes a missing chapter in their lives.
Veterans organizations estimate more than 82,000 troops remain unaccounted for from our wars. That includes 71,986 military members missing from WWII; nearly 7,500 from the Korean War, whose remains are likely in North Korea; 1,544 from Vietnam; 126 from Cold War actions; two from Operation Desert Storm and three from the Iraq War.
In 1973, more than 8,000 servicemembers were listed as missing from the Korean War. Since then, that number has been shaved by 753, who have been accounted for by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. Overall, in 2024, DPAA identified the remains of 172 servicemembers.
Members of the DPAA, headquartered at the Pentagon with scientific laboratories at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, Nebraska, and Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam Field on Oahu, Hawaii, search for answers and bring home the remains of unaccounted Americans lost. The federal agency operates 18 field recovery teams whose members have expertise in excavation, forensic science and data analysis.
They work around the world with counterparts in 46 nations, some former enemies, on their mission to locate the remains of unaccounted-for U.S. servicemembers. The DPAA teams use field archaeology methods to excavate sites identified as possible locations of U.S. military members.
Those could range from jungles on Pacific islands to rice paddies in Vietnam, Laos or Cambodia, and to battlefields on the Korean peninsula. The DPAA recently identified the remains of an Army first lieutenant from Ohio who was reported missing in action on Dec. 2, 1950, in the vicinity of the fighting withdrawal from the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea.
Once identification is determined, families are notified, and the servicemember is buried with full military honors. Some may remember the misidentification of an Air Force pilot from the Vietnam War who was buried in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery from 1984 to 1998. His identity was later confirmed and no longer became an unknown.
The POW/MIA flag, adopted in 1972, which flies next to or below the Stars and Stripes at federal, state and local government offices, reminds us most days of the continued search to document our unaccounted. For families who speculate on the fate of their loved ones missing in action, it is never too late to bring them home.
Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor. sellenews@gmail.com. X @sellenews
