The headstone of an unidentified soldier known as "X-3" is marked as "Unknown" at the Sitka National Cemetery in Sitka, Alaska.Hope McKenney/KCAW hide caption Back in June, a dozen service members, veterans, and police and fire personnel stood at solemn salute in the small island community of Sitka, Alaska while two U.S.
Coast Guardsmen carried an American flag-adorned case from a cemetery to a hearse.They weren't there to honor a recently deceased soldier.Rather, to formally mark the disinterment and transport of an unidentified soldier known simply as "X-3," who's been dead for over eighty years.X-3 is one of more than 81,000 U.S.
service members whose remains have either never been found or never been identified.The majority are missing from World War II, the Vietnam War, and the Korean War.An agency within the Department of Defense is tasked with locating and identifying these service members.
Their remains are rarely found on U.S.soil because it wasn't a primary theater of war, according to DOD.
But in Hawaii and Alaska, where military action took place during WWII, there are more missing soldiers.DOD says there are currently around 120 unidentified soldiers in Alaska and over 1,900 in Hawaii.
The remains of the unidentified solder known as "X-3" are loaded into a hearse in Sitka, Alaska before being transported to a Midwest forensics lab.Hope McKenney/KCAW hide caption A plane crash in the Aleutians The story of X-3 goes back to June 3, 1942, when Japan bombed Unalaska — also known as Dutch Harbor — a community about 800 air miles from Anchorage in the Aleutian Islands.
The U.S.military responded, sending resources to help defend against the attack."One of the planes crashed outside of Col...