Movement of Remains

[mickeyb]

Several years ago Justin added my brother's story to the MIA site. It is a very long story and this is the update.

SSGT George L Winkler 15170329
KIA 3 April 1945
Unidentifiable, minimal scattered remains recovered 21 months later, January 1947.
Buried several times as unknowns.
in 1949 Field Board attached missing crew names to reovered 1947 remains.
Group burial 1949 in Jefferson Barracks N/C

The last information discovered/recovered/received after learning a second search was done in 1951 at the crash site on Cebu, Philippines. These remains were sent to Manila and no further iformation given. Retired Army Col. Jack Forgy discovered the 1951 documents.

Having asked for help from Senators, JPAC, Army, Air Force and others and dismissed by all..no one wanted to acknowledge the fact that remains were recovered in 1951. There was that group burial in 1949. No one would pursue the matter. Except me!

I was dealing with sets of unknown numbers and known crew identification.

In October 2006 I was asked to meet with DPMO personnel in their offices in Crystal City, Arlington, VA. I was presented with skeletal chartsfrom the 1947
recovery and additional information. But they were now looking for information as to what happened to the remains recovered in 1951. On one of the charts I saw a handwritten note "OK SFPE 17 September 1952" I asked if that could mean San Francisco Port of Embarkation. No was the response. However I was not satisfied.

In January 2007 a document was discovered by DPMO showing "Movement of Remains" It was only one page and was still classified. Seven months later the document was declassified. All we knew was "They" moved them. To the San Francisco Port of Embarkation, Oakland CA.

I was disappointed because I had waited all those months for such a smal amount of information.

However. Several days later I received a call from DPMO. While working on anther case there was a file that rompted a search. Thirty-four documents about our missing crew remains.

They were sent in November 1951 to San Francisco to anthropolgist McCown arriving there in January 1952. He wanted to compare these remains with those buried in 1949.

Ihave learned the burial site in Jefferson Barracks was disintered and the remains sent to CA. After comparing both recovered sets Dr McCown could only identify a jaw bone for each airman but not enough to individually identify them. So all remains were placed together and by April 1953 were designated for reburial in Jefferson Barracks N/C.

Once again documentation is missing. Exhumation and reburial records cannot be located.

Even though a step closer I have stated to DPMO and the Department of the Army that our case is still open. And it will remain so until I have proof in hand.

A note in those thirty-four pages from a Col. Brown. "Visits to the next of kin concerned is unnecessary." I cannot fully explain how difficult that was to read.

Jack Forgy has written our story for the AWON newsletter.

My search. My mission. Continues.
Regards