U.S. Military Forensics and Identification

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency says it has finally identified the remains of U.S. Army Sgt. Roger Duquesne, a 25‑year‑old World War II veteran who went missing in action on Sept. 3, 1950 while serving with A Company, 89th Medium Tank Battalion, 25th Infantry Division near Masan, South Korea. Remains recovered near the Naktong River that same month were buried for decades in Honolulu’s National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific as a Korean War Unknown and disinterred in 2011, but repeated efforts to match them through DNA, dental records and chest radiographs all failed. Investigators turned instead to a refined version of craniofacial superimposition, lining up a vintage photograph of Duquesne — including the angle and scale of his dress hat — with images of the skull until facial structures and even the shadow cast by a prominent canine tooth matched. After excluding all other possible candidates using historical records, DPAA concluded the unknown remains were Duquesne’s and formally accounted for him in September, only now detailing the unconventional identification process. The case highlights both the limits of standard forensic methods in older war dead and how modern imaging can revive and strengthen older techniques to resolve long‑standing MIA cases for families.