Elsie Thompson, the youngest of seven children, lost two brothers during World War II. Her sibling Phillip Engesser was returned home to rest, but her eldest brother, Marcus Engesseris just being returned to his birthplace in California more than 80 years after his death, thanks to an identification by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
Engesser served in Company L of the 31st Infantry Regiment during World War II, operating in the Philippines. He was captured after the American surrender of the Bataan Peninsula in April 1942, the DPAA said, and forced to participate in the Bataan Death March before being interned in a notorious prison camp. He died of malaria in September 1942 and his remains were buried in a mass grave in the camp. More than 2,800 American soldiers died at the camp before its liberation in 1945, the agency said.
Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
In 1947, that grave was excavated and the US military attempted to identify the soldiers buried there. At the time, most of the remains were considered unidentifiable and were buried as unknowns at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial. Engesser’s name was engraved on the Walls of the Missing at the cemetery.
Thompson, 92, remembered Engesser as a “good” and “handsome” older brother. It was difficult for her family, she said, never to receive his remains. Thompson’s daughter, Joanne Smith, even recalled her grandmother writing a letter to the Army looking for Engesser’s body so he could be buried with his family.
“My mother went through a lot because she lost several sons during the war,” Thompson told CBS News. “I think it was quite tough for my mother. (Marcus) is the only one, we didn’t have any material from him.”
In 2018, the unknown remains buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial were re-exhumed for examination by the DPAA. Mitochondrial DNA analysis, dental and anthropological analysis, and other evidence allowed scientists at the DPAA laboratory in 2023 to positively identify some of the remains as belonging to Engesser. Thompson told CBS News that she was notified of the identification in 2024, and said the closure is “great.”
“It was emotional to hear what was going on with Marky,” Thompson said, adding that she plans to place Engesser’s remains with her mother, brothers and other relatives. “It was quite an experience.”
What is the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency?
Thompson is just one of thousands of people who are having their family members’ remains returned through the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. The service was responsible for 158 missing soldiers last year. The identifications provide closure for families and offer fallen soldiers the opportunity to be buried at home.
The call to identify and retrieve fallen soldiers was brought to the forefront of the nation’s conscience during the Vietnam War, said Ashley Wright, a public affairs specialist with the DPAA. The United States has “always tried to provide accountability for our missing persons,” Wright said, starting with the American Graves Registration Command after World War II. That command would attempt to make identifications based on the best available science at the time, Wright said.
But as science has evolved, so have the discoveries and identifications. There are approximately 72,000 soldiers from World War II, approximately 7,500 from the Korean War, and more than 1,550 from the Vietnam War who are still missing. But there are only six missing soldiers from the early Gulf Wars, Wright said, and there are no missing soldiers from the war in Afghanistan. Technology has played a major role in recent conflicts, ensuring soldiers are identified and returned home.
“It’s just a sharp decline with every conflict,” Wright said. “The cases we are working on now are not the easy slam dunks, otherwise they would have been solved earlier. These are difficult matters. These are difficult matters. … We’re just going to continue to do what we can to get these families answers.”
How does the DPAA identify fallen soldiers?
Wright said “history, diplomacy and science intersect” to help the DPAA lab make identifications.
The process starts with history: Bureau investigators and experts begin sifting through archival records to learn as much as possible about where a fallen soldier was last seen. Investigation teams will travel to the area to speak to any surviving witnesses and examine the area for clues to confirm if anyone is missing there.
The agency is active in 46 countries, with only one outlier: North Korea. The diplomacy is even small enough to reach out to individual local residents, Wright said, because sometimes a fallen soldier has disappeared on what is now private land.
Once DPAA investigators determine they are in the right place, a recovery mission will be sent to the area. These teams of 15 to 25 people, Wright said, include explosive ordnance disposal experts who can handle live ammunition that may be on site. Medical staff, senior recovery experts and forensic photographers are also part of these groups, and up to 100 local residents may be involved in the physical work of digging and searching for remains. Recovery missions last 30 to 60 days on the ground, Wright said, before returning to the DPAA laboratory.
Back in the laboratory, multiple scientific techniques are used to identify fallen soldiers. Forensic dentists, or dentists who can review medical records and compare them to teeth found in the field, can match dental evidence to the profiles of missing soldiers. Other unique bones, such as collarbones, are compared. For soldiers who disappeared during the Korean War, experts compare the results of tuberculosis skin tests taken before a person was shipped to find remains.
The remains are then formatted and X-rayed for further matching. Other forms of analysis include mitochondrial DNA analysis and isotope analysis, which can determine what a person ate decades ago. This could help identify the remains of American soldiers – who typically ate a corn-based diet – and the remains of local people who may have eaten differently. The DPAA has also collected comparison DNA from family members, such as Thompson.
Once a fallen soldier has been presumptively identified, family members are asked for a reference sample of DNA. Finally, a medical examiner signs off on a report making the identification, and emergency responders then contact family members for a full briefing.
The process is difficult and long. Families can spend decades wondering what happened to their loved one, Wright said, as did Thompson.
“Every case is different and faces its own challenges, and every case is special,” Wright said. “Each of these cases has a family member. Each of these has a comrade in arms who still wonders what happened to them. That number is in no way lost on us.”
Department of Defense/William Dasher
Bringing family closure
Wright said the goal of the DPAA is to bring closure to family members and loved ones like Thompson and Smith. Once family members are notified of their loved one’s identification, the military works with the families to conduct a funeral with full military honors.
“Even if we find and identify just a single tooth, they will receive full military honors for making that ultimate sacrifice,” Wright said.
Smith said this closure was “great” for her family and said she is honored that her uncle will receive a full military funeral. She said she and Thompson could meet the plane that would bring Engesser’s remains on the tarmac to California. They also received Engesser’s medals.
“My grandmother has been through so much… After all these years, to have it come full circle, to have (Engesser) come home and be buried with his mother, it just means a lot,” Smith said. “I’m so grateful that my mother was alive to see this happen. I know it means a lot to her to have her brother back on American soil.”
