DNA may help military end era of unknown soldiers

PITTSBURGH Combat boots stand empty before the altar, a rifle behind each pair.

In the Fort Drum chapel, in upstate New York, families and comrades fill the pews.

The chaplain calls the roll. Memories of missing men respond with a grave, complicated silence.

Barbara Ann Broyles listens to the name of her father, Lt. Col. Don Carlos Faith Jr., echo in the chapel.

She was 4 years old when Faith died east of the Chosin Reservoir in Korea in 1950. The scattered, retreating remnants of his troops left behind his body.

More than 83,000 service members lost since the beginning of World War II remain missing, according to the Defense Department. Many lie in forgotten battlefield graves and beneath memorials of solemn anonymity.

But advancing techniques and DNA technology mean the United States might have buried its last unknown soldier. In offices and laboratories across the country and archaeological sites scattered across continents, teams of investigators and scientists comb the past for the country's lost defenders.

Half a world away from her father's final battlefield, Broyles grew up, married and had three children. She made a home in Baton Rouge. She watched America's relationship with North Korea deteriorate, and her hope for her father's recovery faded.

Then in late September, the phone rang. Retired Air Force Maj. Michael Mee wanted to meet with her.

They'd found him, he said.

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DNA may help military end era of unknown soldiers