ProvoThursday, November 12
BYU students are helping track down families of service members lost in war
The Daily Orem team
If you have a relative who never came home from war, some BYU students may be able to help. They research cases sent by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, and they search census, birth, death and marriage records and obituaries to find living relatives. The agency may then ask those relatives for DNA samples to compare with unidentified remains.
7service members returned to their families after BYU worked on their cases
That's over nearly 10 years of research, BYU's Suzanne Adams said.
Source: KUTV
- Focus: mostly World War II, plus some Korean and Vietnam war cases
- Students research family lines; they don't identify remains
- To register as next of kin: dpaa.mil
Jim Chipman, a Marine A-6 pilot, was killed on a mission over North Vietnam in December 1972. His remains were returned in 2023 to his family in American Fork.
“So they're not giving up; there's always hope.”
The program has returned service members lost in Vietnam and Germany
| Service member | Where lost | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Jim Chipman | North Vietnam, December 1972 | Returned in 2023 |
| Lts. Blaine Wilcox and Edgar W. Nevois | Politz, Germany | Most recent return |
Source: KSL Sports
Adams has a personal stake. Her great-uncle Richard was lost aboard the Shinyo Maru, and she's a DNA donor in the effort to identify him.
Sources: KSL Sports, KUTV