The Department of Defense
POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of
a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from World War I, have been
identified and returned to his family for burial with full military
honors.
This is the first time
the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) has identified a soldier
unaccounted for from World War I.
He is Army Pvt. Francis Lupo of Cincinnati, Ohio. He will be buried on Tuesday,
Sept. 26, 2006, at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C.
Representatives
from the Army met with Lupo’s next-of-kin to explain the recovery and
identification process and to coordinate interment with military honors
on behalf of the Secretary of the Army.
In 1918, Lupo
participated in the combined French-American attack on the Germans near
Soissons, France, in what came to be known as the Second Battle of the
Marne. Despite heavy Allied losses, this battle has been regarded as a
turning point in the war, halting and reversing the final German
advances toward Paris.
Lupo, a member of Company E, 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, was killed in action during the battle, but his remains were never recovered.
In 2003, while conducting
a survey in preparation for a construction project, a French
archaeological team discovered human remains and other items a short
distance from Soissons. Among the items recovered were a military boot
fragment and a wallet bearing Lupo’s name. The items were given by the
French to U.S. officials for analysis.
Among other forensic
identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC
and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used
mitochondrial DNA in the identification of Lupo’s remains.
