Lawton native argues that military has to change DNA testing policy for service remains – The Lawton Constitution

Changes in policy would help broaden work that DNA labs are doing to identify the remains of missing service members, said a Lawton native who has been involved in DNA identification projects across the globe for decades.

What DNA labs can do is being hindered by policy, said Ed Huffine, one of the leaders in DNA technology that is greatly speeding the identification of remains in locations ranging from the World Trade Center in the aftermath of 9-11, to mass grave sites in Bosnia.

The sites share a common thread: the use of nuclear DNA to identify remains, rather than the less specific and more costly mitochondrial DNA. But, the nuclear DNA testing in common use in other countries isnt in common use by the U.S. military because of policy, Huffine said, adding while the military is directed to provide the fullest possible accounting in remains, their own policies violate that. That must be changed.

Huffine said the two types of DNA mitochondrial and nuclear are important in identifying human remains because of their characteristics. When a dead person begins to decay, DNA begins to slowly fall apart. Mitochondrial DNA is more likely to be present after the nuclear DNA has decayed. But, because it is not unique to a person, it cannot stand alone in the identification process.

It needs other forms of identification to collaborate, he said, of things such as forensic evidence found with the body.

For example: human remains are found at the site of a plane crash in Vietnam and if you identify the type of plane and who was flying on it, that narrows down the identity of remains. Using nuclear DNA at the same crash site would allow you to compare it to the relatives of a missing person, providing an identity.

Huffine, who worked for the Armed Forces DNA Laboratory in the mid-1990s, said skeletal remains tested by that lab relied on mitochondrial DNA, the same technique still being used today.

Huffines views on DNA testing were shaped by the years he spent in Bosnia, beginning in 1999, to help identify the estimated 8,000 victims of 1995s Srebrenica massacre.

They had tens of thousands of missing and mitochondrial simply would not work, he said, of the number of unidentified remains and the relations of families of missing people. Mitochondrial would not be able to assist that much. And, mitochondrial takes far more time to get results and is far more expensive.

Instead, scientists there refined the process of obtaining nuclear DNA from skeletal remains, then began mass testing. At the same time, the group went through the country to retrieve DNA samples from living relatives. They created a data base and created a computer program to match living relatives with DNA found in remains. It was a powerful new tool: testers matched seven identifications over seven years with the old system, while they were able to do hundreds of matches a month with nuclear DNA.

That was the first example of large-scale, Huffine said, of a DNA technique used to identify thousands of remains. That has since become the template, except for the U.S. military, which still relies on mitochondrial DNA.

Huffine said its a realization that frustrates him and the families of missing service members. He said hes certain of the viability of nuclear DNA because he saw it work in Bosnia, and the testing he used there is primitive compared to what can be done today.

DNA technology is rapidly advancing. Military rules are not, he said, of the unwillingness to adopt a testing technique so successful, it is even accepted as court evidence. They (scientists) are handicapped.

Huffine cited a specific incident: the accidental bombing of a U.S. POW camp in Tokyo toward the end of World War II. Seventy prisoners died and today, about half the remains have been identified through mitochondrial testing that relies on matches to immediate relatives (parents, siblings, children). Nuclear DNA testing could use relatives of second or third degree to help identify the remain. Huffine said the system is set up for failure.

If you were to completely disregard that, do the system the rest of the world is using, you could identify these individuals very quickly, he said.

Finally identifying remains decades after a loved one has gone missing in war is crucial for families, Huffine said, adding closure comes from knowing the remains are family, and knowing what happened.

They have a greater peace, a greater understanding of the last few days a loved ones been through, he said.

And, thats why Huffine continues along with family organizations to push the U.S. military to adopt the nuclear DNA testing system.

Weve begun to see incremental changes, he said, of a bureaucracy that is sometimes difficult to move. One way to do it is more publicity, more getting the points out there, the points of the success of nuclear-led system that is identifying people. The needle can be moved.

Thats important when you realize 78,000 to 80,000 World War II service members still are listed as missing.

For Huffine, the process of identifying long-missing family members is important on multiple levels, built from personal experience and his early career.

His first DNA-related job was with the Federal Aviation Administration in its national site in Oklahoma City after he graduated from the University of Oklahoma. His four years there focused primarily on the remains from airplane crashes, explaining that testing a pilots DNA could help prove the cause of a crash (ensuring substance abuse was not a factor).

Then, he left the FAA to work with the Armed Forces lab in Washington, D.C. It was there he received a call from home that his father was missing.

He went out driving and never came home, Huffine said. They didnt find his body for a few days. It gave me, somewhat, a feeling for having a missing person in the family. That became imbedded in me, the impact of a missing soldier, the impact on the family. Oftentimes, Id go to their funeral services, just to see the impact on the families.

He also saw the weight DNA could have on the judicial system. He was part of the project that identified the remains of the victims of Argentinas Dirty War, when death squads killed thousands in the mid-1970s to early 1980s.

Because we knew who these people (victims) had been seen in the presence of, there were thousands of charges of crimes against humanity, he said. It shows power of DNA testing, finding the truth decades after it happened.

Giving the family news, their loved one is found and they are dead, is some of the worst news you can give a family. But, it does release them. You have a body and a site they can go to and remember, and go on with their lives.

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Lawton native argues that military has to change DNA testing policy for service remains - The Lawton Constitution