The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1928-11-10
Ten Years After World
War, Bodies of Missing
Heroes Are Still Found
United States Still Searches
for 1874 Americans Who
Did Not Live
3O,713 Graves in American
Military Cemeteries in
Europe Bear Crosses

Europe bear crosses
Paris, Nov. 1O--The tangled
underbrush of the Meuse-Argonne,
st. Mihiel, Chateau Thierry and
other battlefields are still giving up
the unidentified bodies of American
soldiers who fell in action 10 years
ago.
The country has buried its Un-
known Soldier in a national shrine
at Arlington. But during recent
years 1926 bodies have been brought
out of the old battlefields, to be
buried in American military ceme-
teries over here as unknown" be-
cause Identification is impossible.
Ten years have passed since the
armistice. But today, and every day,
American searching parties are
going through the backgrounds,
looking for the lost remains Of boys
who did not live to toss their helmets
and cheer on that November day q
decade ago.
Still 1914 Missing
Forty bodies have been recovered
in the last few months. The Amer
lean Graves Registration Service
estimates that there are still 1344
American bodies yet to be found.
A few weeks ago searching
party went through the Belleau
Wood sector. Overgrown dugouts,
covered with second growth bush
and brambles, nearly hidden beneath
fallen trees, concealed by vines and
creepers, were explored painstaking-
ly. In them, at one place and an
other, were found five bodies. They
lay where they had fallen 10 years
ago.
The Registration Service spares no
effort to learn the identity Of the
dead men. An elaborate system of
Identification has been developed.
The task, as can be imagined, is
extremely difficult.
Tooth Chart Helps
Marks on clothing and equipment
have been, in most cases, oblitcrated
The Identification disk is often miss
ing. When it is, the army tooth
chart. IN consulted. According Il
C$naacl. F. W.avan~nsyne in bom.
mand Of the Registration Service
this method is almost infallible
whenever units, such as companies
or battalions, can be definitely asso-
ciated with the neighborhood in
which a body is found.
From information we receive
from officers, men and chaplains
and from War Department records
we can often associate a certain
company with the ground where q
body is found says Col. Van Duyne
Then, from company records, we
learn that perhaps three men have
never been located. From the tooth
charts taken when the men enlisted
we can usually determine which o1
the three we have found"
Example of Difficulty
Sometimes the task of making ar
Identification becomes arduous il
the extreme. One such case is nov
being worked on by Col. Van Duyne
The manager Of a French lumber
company sent in an American sol
dier's Identification disk, explaining
that it had been found embedded il
a log which reached the mill from
the Argonne district. The tag has
been pierced by a rifle or machine
gun bullet. What Col. Van Duyn,
is now trying to do is find out, j
possible, the exact section with which
this particular tree came. so that h,
can hunt in that vicinity for tn,
body.
Nearly all Of the 3O,713 grave
in the American military cemeterie.
in Europe now bear the new stone
crosses. In most of these cemeteries
work is now in progress for the erec
tion Of the Memorial Chapel
planned by the Battle Monument
Commission, headed by Gen. Johl
J. Pershing.
Visitors books at the cemeterie
show that the American people ar,
not forgetting their overseas dead
More than $4,000 visited the fiel,
and cemetery at Chateau Their,
this year-an increase of 1000 owe
last year.
| Fewer Mothers Making Trip
| It is noted, incidentally, tina
fewer mothers of dead soldiers ar
visiting the cemeteries now than wa
the case in the first few years afte,
the armistice. Col. Van Duyne be
lieves this is largely because tn
mothers of men who served il
France are now beginning, in man.
cases, to get advanced in years, ant
cannot travel long distances as wei
as they could a few years ago.
| Another noticeable fact is tha
foreign visitors to the American
cemeteries are increasing yearly
Indeed, this year nearly as man,
Europeans as Americans visitet
them. TIE legion convention her,
last year stimulated the interest o
French cemeteries, and this year !,
great many Germans have visite,
the cemeteries, especially the Ar
iRonae cemetery at Romagne and tn
St. Mihiel cemetery at Thiaucourt
It is estimated that $4,000 German
visited the latter cemetery this sum
mer. It is explained that thes
Germans came to visit the old Yer
dun battlefields, and while in tn
neighborhool took the time to 70 an
pay homage to the Americans VIII
fell.
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