POW/MIA command keeping a promise

Excavation in the Koolaus begins to look for the remains of Ensign Harry Warnke

THE MILITARY hopes to remove as much as 6,000 pounds of mud today from the rugged slopes of the Koolau Mountains to help find the remains of a World War II Navy pilot -- and bring closure to an Indiana family.

The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command has had teams of anthropologists and forensic scientists working at the crash site at the 2,500-foot elevation since July 21 trying to recover the remains of Navy Ensign Harry "Bud" Warnke, who was killed in June 1944 when his Hellcat fighter crashed into the Koolaus after completing four practice bomb runs.

No remains were found yesterday when a team was sent in for about three hours.

The tale of Warnke, who was 23 when he was killed, has been a torturous one for his family.

They were initially told that Warnke was lost at sea, even though the Navy had sent a team to investigate the mountainous crash site. A shoe was found and buried there on June 17, 1944 -- two days after the crash -- but it was never marked.

It was not until four decades later that Myrtle Tice, Warnke's only sister, enlisted the help of Sen. John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, to get the military to reopen the case.

STILL MISSING World War II: 78,000, of which 35,000 have been deemed recoverable. The others are lost at sea or entombed in sunken vessels. Korean War: 8,100 Vietnam War: 1,800 Cold War: 120 Gulf War: 1 Source: Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command

But the process has been painfully slow, even after the military made an investigative visit to the site in 1999 and recovered items such as two 90-pound propeller blades and other pieces of wreckage that bore the number 82 -- Warnke's aircraft number.

The Navy had to complete an environmental assessment since the crash site is on conservation land. That document said the recovery operations would pose no significant threat to the environment.

James Pokines, who heads the team of recovery specialists, said that once the excavation has been completed at the end of this month, the military plans to replant and restore the area.

But the high peaks of the Koolaus are a tricky place to work.

"It's all weather-driven," said Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Marsieck, the head noncommissioned officer in the team.

Yesterday, the team did not get flown to a landing zone overlooking the H-3 Kaneohe-bound tunnel until 11:30 a.m. because of the dense cloud cover. It also had to leave within three hours or face the uncomfortable possibility of spending a chilly night in the Koolaus.

Part of yesterday's mission, Pokines said, was to determine if a Hawaii Army National Guard heavy-lift CH-47 Chinook helicopter could haul out mud and dirt excavated from the crash site. After it has been allowed to dry out, all the mud taken out of the mountain by helicopter will be sifted through screens at Schofield Barracks' East Range. Bones, teeth and other artifacts will then be taken to the Army Central Identification Laboratory to determine if they belong to Warnke.

After yesterday's brief operations, Pokines said he is still confident that JPAC will recover enough materials to make a positive identification.

"I think we are getting close," he said.

Marine 1st Lt. Alex Vanston, JPAC team leader, said, "These types of operations are very important because it upholds U.S. promise to those it sends in harm's way that regardless where you fall, the U.S. will make a reasonable effort to bring them home."

To Tice it is a promise that she hopes the United States can keep since there is an empty grave next to her parents in the family plot in Westville, a farming community in northern Indiana.