The UW Missing In Action (MIA) Recovery and Identification Project (RIP) primary mission is to enhance the identification of our missing United States Armed Forces from past wars. The current focus is on recovery and identification of World War II US Forces in the European Theater. Four scholarly disciplines are engaged in the discovery, careful exhumation and the identification of remains: History, Archaeology, Forensics and Genetic Analysis. Researchers and student veterans from across these disciplines are building a multi-disciplinary team to help accelerate the recovery of lost service members. In 2014 the Center helped identify the remains of PFC Lawrence S. Gordon, a United States soldier who was killed in action on August 13, 1944, but whose remains were later misidentified as a German soldier. The project's primary goal is to identify new technologies to enhance the recovery and identification process and apply these technologies towards the final goal, repatriation.
