Additionally, an explosive ordnance technician, a linguist, and an aircraft wreckage analyst may augment the team as needed. When foreign governments and individuals provide remains to the U.S. Government, our experts have not been involved in the recovery efforts. This may cause problems in identifications if stringent archaeological techniques are not used. Our digging crews carefully remove soil and sift it using screens that trap objects as small as the eyelet of a boot, a few links from a dog-tag chain or a gem of a class ring. They maintain a very careful and detailed record ensuring accountability for the remains.
Presumptive evidence provides a logical reason to associate remains with an individual.
An assortment of factors including the age of the remains at death, availability of records, and the condition of the remains determine the course of the investigation towards identification. In the search for presumptive evidence, many times the investigative process begins by looking at operational reports that help to identify or correlate remains. Typically, a comparison of remains against other loss incidents from the general location and time frame provides investigative leads. A determination through anthropological means for the race, age, and height narrows the investigation. A comparison of that anthropological evidence against medical records of service members that fit into the general loss profile continues to narrow the scope of the investigation to a few possible loss candidates.