The Australian Defense Force Unrecovered War Casualties – Army is responsible for locating, recovering, and identifying missing soldiers from past conflicts. Their work provides closure to families who have lost loved ones in conflicts such as World War I and II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The project is being led by the Australian Army and involves a team of investigators, forensic scientists, historians, and genealogists. The team employs a range of techniques, including DNA analysis, anthropological assessment, and genealogical research, to identify the remains of missing soldiers. The group works closely with overseas governments and organizations to locate and recover missing soldiers. With 30,000 unaccounted for soldiers, the project is a significant undertaking and is expected to take many years to complete. However, the Australian government is committed to ensuring that every effort is made to identify the missing soldiers and provide their families with closure.
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[Music]
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Hi, welcome to Kids 2024. I'm Captain Tasha Mitchell. I am a forensic biologist
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with the
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Unrecovered Wall Casualties Army Unit and Manager of Forensic Biology at
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Forensic Science Queensland.
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So, I recovered a wall casualties army is the Army's investigative unit
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responsible for the recovery
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and identification of Australian service personnel who remain unaccounted for
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from past conflicts.
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So, we investigate all notifications of the discovery of human remains or
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information that
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may lead to the location of those remains believed to be Australian soldiers.
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And it really started back in 2006 when the Australian Army History Unit
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received notification
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of the remains of two of six Australian servicemen listed as missing in action
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at the end of the
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Vietnam War. The remains were recovered by a group called Operation Aussie's
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Home,
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which was a private organisation established to investigate and fully account
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for those
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those soldiers dubbed as the Forgotten Six. The Vietnamese government demanded
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that an official
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Australian team be put together to recover those remains and that a positive
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identification
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would have to be made before they could be repatriated. So, Brian Mance from
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the Army History Unit pulled
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together a team in about 72 hours and through various artifacts, positively
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identified two of
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them as Lance Corporal Richard Tiny Parker and Private Peter Gilson. And so,
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between 2007 and 2009,
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that group then successfully recovered the remains of the remaining servicemen
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and they were repatriated
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to Australia and later rest by their families with full military honours. So,
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then in 2009,
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the un-recovered war casualties Army functions separated from the Army History
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Unit and was stood
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up as its own separate work unit and it's grown and grown since then. We have
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around 35,000
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Australian service personnel accounted for from previous conflicts and most of
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these are
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in World War I and II where we lost over 100,000 Australian soldiers. Out of
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those 35,000,
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25,000 of those have never been recovered from those World War I and II
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battlefields
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and the remainder, just over 9,000, lie in unknown and unidentified graves
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located in the
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Commonwealth War-Grave Symmetries. In addition, we've got 42 soldiers who
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remain unaccounted for
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from the Korean conflict and the location and recovery of these personnel is a
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major focus of the
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unit. Fortunately, and thanks to the efforts of that group of researchers and
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investigators,
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I mentioned before and that led to the identification of the Forgotten Seaks,
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all service personnel from
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the Vietnam War are now accounted for. We work with a range of scientific
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specialists that have
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experience in forensic disciplines such as odontology, archaeology, biological
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anthropology and of
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course forensic biology and their specific involvement for each task or job is
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dependent on the nature
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of the job itself. We also work closely with a wide range of volunteers which
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can include very
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experienced academics and experts from Australian universities and so on. And I
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might just say that
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we don't actually have a dedicated laboratory facility. We really engage with
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services of
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laboratories around Australia and in some instance internationally. The
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identification process really
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begins at the burial site where the remains and any associated artifacts are
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recovered by our
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archaeology experts. These can include personal effects such as watches,
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religious medals but also
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military artifacts including weapons, ID tags and so on. And so these artifacts
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are examined by a
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subject matter expert and are a crucial element because they are an excellent
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indication of the
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nationality of the deceased but of course care needs to be taken because these
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are
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transportable objects that could be moved between both allied and enemy
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soldiers. Our
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bio-anthropologists examine human remains to develop a biological profile of
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the remains
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including things like their age, sex, ancestry and stature and that information
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can also assist
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in determining if the remains might be from a local or an enemy population.
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Vryndigo dotology is still useful to inform ancestral origins of remains by
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taking into account
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knowledge of historical dental practices and materials used by different
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societies as well
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as prominent features associated with different populations. And of course DNA,
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despite the utility
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of anthropology and otology there are limitations with those disciplines and in
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95% of cases for
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UWA, DNA is required to establish both ancestry and identification. Our
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strategy is to obtain
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a DNA sample from the unknown skeletal remains and then we can use that sample
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to generate ancestry
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data which can be compared to known population data to indicate biogeographic
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ancestry and we
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also generate identity information which can be compared to known family
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reference sample
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donor information. And where there's a match then we can provide some
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statistical waiting as evident
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through support for the proposed identity. The way we find sites initially with
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some kind of
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notification and they might be received after following the discovery of human
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remains with
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some kind of evidence such as an artifact indicating it is an Australian
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service person or there are
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a number of organised volunteer groups who have an interest in this area and
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they undertake a
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significant body of research before submitting the information to UWA proposing
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a possible burial site.
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So following those notifications an investigator is allocated to the case and
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they undertake
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a range of research and investigations to determine the legitimacy of the
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notification
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of it being an Australian personnel. Each investigation begins with
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comprehensive research
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by a team of historical experts. They look at data and records related to
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soldiers history or
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soldiers in that area of operation. They access records from the Australian War
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Memorial,
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National Archives, unit diaries and so on and the identities of every soldier
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in that area that
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went missing is examined to search for clues. The investigator will then
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prepare a report and
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recommendations and considerations moving forward and that might include a site
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examination or
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some other reconnaissance, a preliminary survey will be conducted and compared
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to wartime mapping
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and UWA also use a range of geophysical tools such as LIDAR technology to
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assist in finding
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burial locations and where required forensic staff may also be deployed to
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identify likely
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burial locations and to conduct test things. We use DNA in many of our cases to
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identify the
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remains. Because we're looking at remains of individuals who died many decades
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ago,
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standard autosomal testing and kinship analysis is not viable. So we routinely
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target
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lineage markets which are passed down from one generation to another, largely
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unchanged.
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Specifically we look at the mitochondrial DNA and compare that to maternal
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biological relatives
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as well as YSTR markers and compare those to potential paternal relatives.
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Because of the
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lower discrimination value of those types of markers we seek to obtain family
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reference samples from
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two paternal and two maternal relatives to mitigate any areas due to
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undisclosed
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non-paternity and so on. DNA was first used by UWA on a large scale as part of
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the Battle of
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Fremels project. This battle occurred in 1916 in the First World War. It was a
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British and Australian
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military operation on the western front where over five and a half Australians
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became casualties
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and another two thousand were killed. It's believed to be the greatest loss by
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a single
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division in 24 hours during the entire First World War. A joint Australian and
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United Kingdom
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Ministry of Defence Fremels project was established in response to a proposal
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received by the Australian
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Army in 2006 stating that the Australian soldiers were buried in pits near the
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village of Fremels
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in France. The pits were opened up and 250 Australian and British soldiers were
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exhumed.
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Bone samples were taken for DNA and sent to LGC in the UK and they developed
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mitochondrial
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and YSTR profiles and compared them to family reference samples identified
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through genealogical
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methods. Today we have identified 166 servicemen and work is still ongoing to
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establish the
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identities of the remaining service personnel. So we know that in areas such as
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Papua New Guinea,
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for example, where there was a lot of close combat fighting, that soldiers fell
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in very close
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proximity to each other and so when we're recovering remains we may be
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recovering those from other
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services, other nations. We rely heavily on our forensic disciplines such as
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anthropology,
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odontology and DNA to help us discriminate between remains from different
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population groups.
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We're also partnering with Queensland University of Technology for development
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of next-generation
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sequencing technologies to facilitate better resolution of biogeographic
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ancestry by developing
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SNP panels that provide greater resolution of ancestry, particularly between
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Japanese, Asian
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and European and Caucasian populations. So before we do any site recon, we have
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a detailed planning
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and risk assessment phase. We liaise with host nation government and
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authorities to seek their
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approval because of course it might not be just remains from other nations of
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their lost soldiers
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but it could be locals that are native to the area. So we do a lot of
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engagement with local
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administrators and key leaders to build an atmosphere of trust and goodwill. We
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rely on our project
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partners such as Commonwealth War Graves, Department of Veteran Affairs and
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relationships we've
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established with similar counterpart organisations throughout the world to
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ensure the repatriation
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of those remains to the relevant nation and that can be through informal
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channels or through
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established MOUs or memorandums of understanding. So once we have identified
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the remains and that
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happens through an identification board, UWCA will contact each registered
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relative of the name
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soldier and the army will then go about making arrangements to bury or in turn
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the soldier in
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accordance with the procedures that existed at the time that the soldier was
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killed. For soldiers
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killed in World War I and World War II Australian soldiers are laid to rest in
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the nearest Commonwealth
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War Graves cemetery in the country in which they died. For those who died
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during the Korean conflict
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they are laid to rest in the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Bessarne in
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South Korea.
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Occasionally we will need to enter soldiers as an unknown Australian soldier
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and whilst we seek to
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identify them before this process we do this to ensure that we can preserve
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their dignity
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and every soldier is given a full military funeral and they are conducted by
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the Australian army.
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So one of our big challenges is locating family relatives to compare our DNA
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profiles from our
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skeletal remains to. In short the way we do that is a lot of genealogical
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research.
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Our genealogists have created thousands of family trees for missing service
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personnel
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and those identified from their position on the family tree are then invited to
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provide a DNA
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family reference sample. Families of missing soldiers can also register on the
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UWCA website
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and their details will be stored in a secure database. Once we have the family
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reference donor
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samples typically a saliva sample or a mouth swap we generate a DNA profile
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either a mitochondrial
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DNA profile or a YSTR DNA profile depending on whether they are a maternal or a
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paternal relative
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and that DNA information is stored on a secure database and only used to assist
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in the identification
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of missing soldiers as per their informed consent. One of our big challenges is
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recovery remains
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from tropical locations where there are small sites on steep hill sides. There
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's a lot of
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thick overgrowth so it's difficult to access the ground even to dig out the
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remains because it's hot
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stick and humid wearing full PPE to protect the remains from contamination is
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difficult
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so we have to take lots of breaks and it is a very slow and laborious process.
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Another challenge
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to that is the condition of remains so lots of microbial damage and leading to
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degradation and so
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on. So when we do get the remains of the laboratory it can be very difficult to
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find a viable bone
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sample for DNA profiling. This is a big step for us and it really advances our
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identification
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efforts for those missing from the Korean War. Looking forward for UWCA there's
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two primary goals
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the first of these is to really develop and work with our partners to develop
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technologies that
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or advanced technologies that help us solve these really complex cold cases and
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then the other goal
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is to keep going back so even though the cases that we haven't been successful
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in moving forward
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we're constantly going back reviewing them looking for opportunities for
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identification
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and to progress those cases so there are two goals moving forward that keep on
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going back
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and revisiting those cases to find the next clue. Army and our group at UWCA
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remain committed
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to locating soldiers from past conflicts no matter how long ago to recovering
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their remains
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to identifying them and giving them a name and bringing closure to their
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families. Our goal is to
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bury them alongside their fallen mates in a cemetery and bring them the dignity
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and respect
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that they deserve. I'm really honoured to share with you the story of UWCA
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today and thank you for
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your time and have a great hit to any 24.
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With the HID Nimbus Presto system busy forensic labs can streamline their
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to use software and easily accessible deck layout make preparing for a sample
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run painless. It's
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programmed to complete the DNA purification process all by itself. The HID Nim
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bus Presto system is a
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true walk away solution with minimal touch points that help eliminate human
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error and contamination
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risk. All this reduces the demand on highly skilled forensic scientists so that
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they have
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time to focus on data analysis.