Evening star., 1949-05-30
By GEORGE Kennedy

By George Kennedy
A search that combed the world
has brought thousands of Amer
leans home to a final resting
place for this Memorial Day. Men
have risked their lives to make
the roster Of honored dead in to-
days ceremonies as complete as
possible.
In Arlington and hundreds of
other shaded cemeteries across
the United States the bands play,
the middle e-aged Legionnaires of
World War I head the line of
march, as the elderly GAR men
did a generation before. The un-
comprehending children decorate
the graves by placing spring flow-
Iers in the metal holders in~ the
green lawns. Hundreds OF be-
reaved families are having the
satisfaction of taking part in the
ceremony because Of great ma
tional effort.
This American attempt to bring
back the bodies of its fighting men
from all over the world is some
thing new In history. 1t has oc-
casioned amazement wherever the
search and recovery teams of the
Army Quartermaster Corps. which
Is dong the WORK. have gone
Bodies have been recovered where
Iairplanes crashed In the mountains
of the Greenland icecap north OF
the Arctic Circle. They have been
found on the slopes Of the Hima-
layas, in the jungles Of Africa and
South America. in the Sahara and
Australian Deserts and in the
jungles and beaches Of South Sea
islands.
No effort has been spared to
recover a body. Take the expert
ence of 1t. William De Weese. a
young officer now In Washington
who last September arrived in
Manila from a tour Of inspecting
the progress of the program in
New Guinea. While he was pre-
pairing for a trip to Siam and
Burma to make some recoveries.
word came that the wreckage of
an American plane had been found
high on a mountain that rises out
Of the Andaman Sea near Tavoy,
a Burmese port.
Delayed by Rebel Activity.
1t. De Weese started with 1t.
Winston Brooks as a teammate.
Because they were to use airlines
and other commercial transporta-
ton he carried $4,000 In his bill
fold. This money was renewed
at times by leaving vouchers with
the finance officers of American
diplomatic establishments.
On their way to Clark Field.
so miles north Of Manila. they
were held up for q time because
the rebel Hukbalahaps were
shooting it out with the Philip
pine constabulary. An American
Military Air Transport plane took
them to Bangkok. Siam.
There they took the narrow
gauge railroad to Ban-Pong. They
hired q native-driven motor bus
to take them to Kanburi. where
two Americans were buried in a
British cemetery. They recovered
the bodies. but the bus driver
multiplied his rate by 10 when
he realized the cargo. They not
only had to pay 1t. but they had
to take part In publication 'cere-
lmony for the bus at the end of
the run In which a Buddhist
priest burned candles and chant
ed incantations.
Back In Bangkok they investi-
gated a report that an American
plane had crashed IL miles away.
They found a huge crater In a
rice paddy and elements OF a Psi
fighter plane which had exploded.
but no body.
They arranged for safe keeping
of the bodies at Bangkok and few
to Rangoon on the British Over
seas Airways service. From there
they went upriver to Mandaiay,
They obtained letters granting
them permission 10 travel the
country from Gen. Smith-Dun,
commander Of the Burmese Army,
He warned them TO travel On back
roads-the Shamans were Ia re-
volt. The decoirs. or Burmese
bandits. were always o menace
They recovered two bodies from
the British cemetery at Rangoon
and on the same day q Buddhist
priest living near the cemetery
hanged himself. The natives
thought the spirits released by
disinterring the dead had caused
the tragedy and for q time feeling
was. tense.
Helped by Briton-
They few TO Tavoy on . Onion
lot Burma plane where they we're
put up by the British manager Of
n. H. -