{"id":92552,"date":"2018-09-18T16:47:08","date_gmt":"2018-09-18T16:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/09\/18\/corn-in-the-bones-the-science-behind-north-korea-war-remains\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T09:35:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T09:35:36","slug":"corn-in-the-bones-the-science-behind-north-korea-war-remains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2018\/09\/18\/corn-in-the-bones-the-science-behind-north-korea-war-remains\/","title":{"rendered":"Corn in the bones: The science behind North Korea war remains"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii \u2014 When war remains <\/a>arrive at the Defense POW\/MIA Accounting Agency to be reunited with waiting families, there\u2019s always a question: How do they know for sure who it is?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DPAA laboratory director John Byrd and forensic anthropologist Jennie Jin, who leads the Korea War team, walked reporters through the science behind how they will identify 55 boxes of remains returned<\/a> by North Korea this summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At DPAA\u2019s lab in Hawaii, each box of remains was delicately laid out and tagged on lab tables. Some tables just had thin, broken fragments of arm bones. Others had intact femurs, some teeth or even parts of skulls. None had a complete skeleton. There were 20 boxes from the November 1950 Battle at Unsan, where 1,700 service members remain unaccounted for<\/a> and 35 boxes from the December 1950 Battle of the Chosin Reservoir, which still has 1,100 unaccounted service members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some of the items that were returned in the 55 boxes of U.S. service member remains from North Korea included shoes, buttons, knife sheaths, a canteen and a mess kit. Military Times was allowed to view the remains, but no photographs of the remains themselves were allowed. Tara Copp\/Military Times<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There are rare cases where bones come back with such high levels of preservation that clues, such as height and teeth, enable DPAA to identify them quickly. That was the case with the first two IDs that are expected to be announced this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for most of the tables, the lab will have to do further testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the steps DPAA takes<\/a> to identify war dead:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mitochondrial DNA and Nuclear DNA testing: <\/b>There\u2019s two types of DNA that can be extracted from remains, mitochondrial and nuclear. Even bones 70 years old can still have a service member\u2019s DNA in bone cells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can think of bone as a material that\u2019s made of two major components,\u201d Byrd said. \u201cThe living or organic component is collagen and the mineral component is hydroxyapatite. It\u2019s kind of like a hard mineral. It\u2019s similar to what\u2019s in coral and shells.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c<\/i>The DNA is all in the collagen portion,\u201d Byrd said. \u201cThere is no DNA in the mineral component.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But collagen is susceptible to decomposing, especially in warm climates, Byrd said. It\u2019s made DNA testing for Vietnam War remains much more difficult. In the Korean War, the odds are better because of North Korea\u2019s harsh winters.<\/p>\n\n\n\t