Remains of WWII soldier identified 76 years after listed as MIA
By Gillian Flaccus, The Associated Press
This 1942 file photo provided by Dale Ross shows his uncle, Pfc. Dale W. Ross, in Hawaii. (Courtesy of Dale Ross via AP, File)
PORTLAND, Ore. — The remains of a World War II soldier who went missing in final weeks of the Guadalcanal campaign have been identified 76 years after he was listed as missing in action.
The Department of Defense says skeletal remains found in a bag recovered two years ago in the South Pacific are those of Pfc. Dale W. Ross, whose surviving family lives in Ashland, Oregon.
Officials believe remains of nearly half of the 83,000 unidentified service members killed in World War II and more recent wars could be identified and returned to relatives.
The remains and the dog tags were found by an 8-year-old boy in the jungle and his family gave them to a visiting American tourist, asking her to help find the soldier's surviving family.
The woman, Donna Esposito, found Ross' nephew and niece and the family gave the bones to the military for analysis.
The trio traveled to the Solomon Islands in 2017.
In this Aug. 3, 2017, file photo, the dog tags and a Hawaiian pressed penny charm of Pfc. Dale W. Ross are displayed at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. (Justin Taylan/Pacific Wrecks via AP)
There are no immediate plans to shoot it down, due to concerns about debris. But steps have been taken to prevent the collection of sensitive information.
Tens of thousands of airmen and guardians who responded to an internal survey in 2020 said they were mentally or physically abused in the past two years.