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MacGregor DM, Lain R, Bernie A, Cooper A, Dawe T, Donlon D, Fitzmaurice T, Kelly G, Heiman S, Lowe A, Manns B, Matic A, Mitchell N, Oakley D, Tutty M, White T, Williams G, Willis A, Wright K, Wu YH, Oxenham MF. "Lest we forget": An overview of Australia's response to the recovery and identification of unrecovered historic military remains. Forensic Sci Int 2021; 328:111042. [PMID: 34638089 DOI: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2021.111042] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is responsible for the recovery and identification of its historic casualties. With over 30,000 still unrecovered from past conflicts including World War One (WW1) and World War Two (WWII), the Australian Army and Royal Australian Air Force have teams that research, recover, identify and oversee the burial (or reburial) of the remains of soldiers and airmen who continue to be found each year. The Royal Australian Navy is also responsible for its unrecovered casualties. Collectively the priorities of the various services within the ADF are the respectful recovery and treatment of the dead, thorough forensic identification efforts, resolution for families and honouring the ADF's proud history of service and sacrifice. What is unique about the approach of the ADF is that the respective services retain responsibility for their historic losses, while a joint approach is taken on policies and in the utilisation of the pool of forensic specialists. Section One describes the process undertaken by the Australian Army in the recovery, identification and burial or repatriation of soldiers through its specialised unit Unrecovered War Casualties - Army (UWC-A). Section Two describes the role of the Royal Australian Air Force in the recovery of aircraft and service personnel through their specialised unit Historic Unrecovered War Casualties - Air Force (HUWC-AF). An overview of the operations of each service and case studies is presented for each section.
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Affiliation(s)
- Donna M MacGregor
- Unrecovered War Casualties - Army, Australian Army, Canberra, ACT, Australia; Forensic Services Group, Queensland Police Service, Brisbane, QLD, Australia; School of Environment and Science, Griffith Sciences, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia; School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
| | - Russell Lain
- Unrecovered War Casualties - Army, Australian Army, Canberra, ACT, Australia; Sydney Dental Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Andrew Bernie
- Unrecovered War Casualties - Army, Australian Army, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Alan Cooper
- Unrecovered War Casualties - Army, Australian Army, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Tim Dawe
- Unrecovered War Casualties - Army, Australian Army, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Denise Donlon
- History and Heritage Branch, Historic Unrecovered War Casualties - Air Force, Canberra, ACT, Australia; School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | | | - Grant Kelly
- History and Heritage Branch, Historic Unrecovered War Casualties - Air Force, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Scott Heiman
- Unrecovered War Casualties - Army, Australian Army, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Anthony Lowe
- History and Heritage Branch, Historic Unrecovered War Casualties - Air Force, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Brian Manns
- Unrecovered War Casualties - Army, Australian Army, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Ashley Matic
- History and Heritage Branch, Historic Unrecovered War Casualties - Air Force, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Natasha Mitchell
- Unrecovered War Casualties - Army, Australian Army, Canberra, ACT, Australia; Forensic Science South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia
| | - Dermot Oakley
- 3rd Health Support Battalion, Australian Army, Melbourne, VIC, Australia; Victorian Police Airwing, Victorian Police Service, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Malcolm Tutty
- History and Heritage Branch, Historic Unrecovered War Casualties - Air Force, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Toni White
- Toni White, Toni White Research, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - Gregory Williams
- History and Heritage Branch, Historic Unrecovered War Casualties - Air Force, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Anna Willis
- College of Arts, Society and Education, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia
| | - Kirsty Wright
- History and Heritage Branch, Historic Unrecovered War Casualties - Air Force, Canberra, ACT, Australia; School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - Yuan-Heng Wu
- Unrecovered War Casualties - Army, Australian Army, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Marc F Oxenham
- School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia; School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom
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