The Group at AFDIL
Identifinders is proud to be part of the effort to assist in the DNA identification of the remains of unidentified soldiers. From our first efforts working with the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory to identify the Hand in the Snow, to our more recent work with History Flight and Missing Air Crew, we continue to dedicate ourselves to bringing each MIA home so that his loved ones can finally have closure.
It was through the efforts of Colleen Fitzpatrick, Diane Burkett, and Marilyn Hamill of Identifinders International that Pat Ranfranz, of the Missing Air Crew project was able to call me on the last Sunday in June of this year and give me the news that he had found my uncle Howard Holding’s WW II plane after 66 years! Pat found the plane in the harbor of Yap Island in 2006, but was not able to find Howard’s relatives. Because Identifinders donated their time and effort to finding us, my brother and I were able not only to learn what happened to our uncle so many years ago, but we were able to make arrangements to attend the memorial service on Yap July 27, and meet Pat and his family, Mark Noah of History Flight and so many other kind and dedicated people there. The military never told my grandparents the specifics of Howard’s death. They only said he had been shot down in the Pacific in the vicinity of Yap Island. I don’t even think my grandparents knew the date of Howard’s death. Since the military records from WW II have finally been declassified, dedicated people like Pat, Mark, and the great staff at Identifinders who care so much about the families of the Missing in Action, have been able to work on locating our loved ones. I cannot describe the sense of peace I have just knowing what happened. The trip to Yap was the event of a lifetime that I would not have had were it not for Indentifinders.
Thank you so much–all of you.