Finding Our
Fallen
Secretary of Defense Chuck
Hagel, a native Nebraskan, took action. A wounded combat veteran from the
Vietnam War, Hagel consolidated those military organizations doing similar
work. In January 2015 the “Defense
POW/MIA Accounting Agency” (DPAA) was officially established. Its mission of “providing the fullest possible accounting for our missing personnel to
their families and the nation” was reaffirmed. They continue investigations
for unaccounted service personnel in 19 countries worldwide, using 27
investigating teams and 57 recovery teams. Importantly, DPAA moved to
strengthen partnerships with non-governmental experts who “desire to partner
with DPAA in the areas of research, investigation, and recover.” Including organizations like History Flight.
During the last decade,
History Flight has recovered the remains of more than 120 individuals who – like
Fae Moore – were once declared “unrecoverable” from Betio Island at Tarawa. History Flight became “dedicated to finding, recovering and
repatriating America’s war dead to American soil. It has sent over 100 search and recovery teams all over the
world to locate loss sites of missing service personnel and to recover them.”
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| The shipping yard of KSSL on Betio. Some 29 Marines were recovered from a burial trench in the highlighted area. One was later identified as Sgt. Fae Moore. (History Flight photo) |
According to Mark Noah, the
team “excelled in difficult conditions to
produce spectacular results.”
Its Tarawa team included forensic anthropologists, geophysicists,
historians, surveyors, anthropologists, forensic odontologists, unexploded ordnance
specialists, medics and cadaver dog handlers.
On July 26, 2015, History
Flight turned over the remains found on Tarawa to a representative of the newly-created
Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), who accompanied them to their
laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor in Hawaii for identification.
Thus began the intensive
process of examining and testing the material evidence found with the remains
--- including clothing, equipment, and personal items.
An anthropological analysis
focused on skeletal remains from grave #23 of Cemetery 27. The evidence was encouraging, based
upon what was known about Sergeant Moore.
But it was not enough, and the process continued.
Perhaps more telling was a
dental analysis, comparing Sergeant Moore’s records with physical evidence
found on Betio. Again, the
results were encouraging.
“The dental remains consist of 31 teeth in complete upper and lower
jaws, one tooth was lost prior to death.
The examined remains correspond to the antemortem evidence of Sgt MOORE
with no unexplainable discrepancies.”
While government scientists
were trying to unravel the mysteries contained within the remains of the 34
Marines and one Navy Corpsman found on Tarawa, news of the discovery was
beginning to reach the American public.
Newspapers and broadcasting stations picked up the story, and – of
course – it was also a hot topic in social media.
In Herington Kansas, a grand
nephew of Fae Moore was browsing the web when he learned about the History
Flight discovery on Tarawa. Jeffery
Hampton alerted his mother and an aunt. When they learned that the military was looking for DNA
matches to help with identification, they ended up contacting a cousin,
Lawrence Denton, in Lakewood, Colorado, to see if he would be willing to
provide the DNA. He, of course,
agreed.
A couple of weeks later, in
mid-October, Denton received a phone call from DPAA. It was retired Marine Master Sergeant Chuck Williams who
almost immediately quizzed Denton with, “What
does the name Fae Moore mean to you.”
“That was my mother’s youngest brother, killed in World War II,” he
responded.
“Then I’m talking to the right person,” he remembers Williams saying. “We
have discovered some remains, and what I’m looking for is a family member to
give DNA, and if there are no siblings of Sergeant Moore still alive, what we
like to have is DNA from the oldest living niece or nephew.”
Denton was dumbfounded.
“It was one of those unbelievable moments that you can’t describe,”
recalled Denton, who grew up in Chadron and graduated from both Chadron High
School and Chadron State College.
“I thought ‘Wow!’ and I remember immediately going into my office to the
computer and sending word to Heather, Chip, and Lance – my kids – telling them
that the remains of several Marines had been found, and that uncle Fae may be
one of them.”
“It wasn’t 20 minutes later that Heather called me back. She had gone online and pulled up a
site telling about the discovery of Marine remains on Tarawa and sending me a
copy of it.”
“And all of a sudden my excitement turned to thankfulness, as I realized
we had the possibility of fulfilling the wishes and dreams of my grandmother.”
Several days later, a DNA
kit arrived in the mail. Denton
followed the directions, swabbing the inside of his mouth numerous times, then
forwarding the kit to the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory at Dover
Air Force Base in Delaware. He
heard nothing for several weeks, until receiving a confirmation letter from the
DNA laboratory. They had received
his DNA package and would be forwarding their analysis to the Defense POW/MIA
Accounting Agency at Hickam Field in Hawaii.
In January and February, the
identification process began to approach a conclusion.
The preponderance of
evidence culminated in a simple notation on DPAA letterhead, dated 14 March
2016.
“The remains designated CIL 2015-125-1-28, DPAA 2015-0012 are identified
as those of Sergeant Fae Verlin MOORE, 317600, U.S. Marine Corps.” It was signed by Edward A. Reedy,
Captain, Medical Corps, U. S. Navy.
It was official, but it was an internal document, and no public
announcement was made at that time.
In early July, Denton
returned from an out-of-town trip and found a message on his answering machine from
Mrs. Hattie Johnson, head of the POW/MIA Section at Marine Corps
Headquarters.
She asked Denton to give her a call.
She asked Denton to give her a call.
After a few days of
telephone tag, Denton and Johnson finally were able to talk.
Mrs. Johnson confirmed that they had identified the remains of his uncle, Sergeant Fae Moore.
Mrs. Johnson confirmed that they had identified the remains of his uncle, Sergeant Fae Moore.
